“Heaven is for Real” - the Movie

Not having read the book, “Heaven is for Real,” I was quite curious to see the movie; I had lots of questions, wondering why it was generating so much interest. Author, and father of Colton, Todd Burpo said he is very satisfied that the movie portrays his book accurately and honestly. In fact, Todd claims that God is telling the story. Why, I wondered? Is the Bible incomplete? Or will Colton's story turn non-believers into believers? And then I remembered the story of Dives who, from his place in Hades, asked Abraham to send someone to warn His brothers: “If someone is sent to them from the dead, then they will repent of their sins and turn to God.” To which Abraham replied, “They won’t listen even if someone rises from the dead” (Luke 16:30-31).

While the Bible gives few details of Heaven as a ‘place,’ it gives us a few amazing sights of the king of Heaven. Isaiah says, “I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple” (Is. 6:1). Ezekiel saw Jesus: “high above on a throne was a figure like that of a man, glowing, as if full of fire, and brilliant light surrounded him.” (Ezekiel 1:26-27). The Apostle John saw “someone like a son of man, his eyes were like blazing fire, and his face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance, and the throne He sat on was as brilliant as gemstones—like jasper and carnelian.” (Rev. 1:13-17; 4:3). Upon seeing Jesus in His glory, John and Ezekiel fell down like dead men. Isaiah felt his sinfulness: “I am a man of unclean lips” (6:5).

In contrast, the 4-year old Colton’s view of Jesus is that of a white man with blue-green eyes, curly brown hair (John tells us Jesus' hair was white, like wool), dressed in a plain white robe. And that's a problem: Colton's “Heaven” is too earthy. And believers in his heavenly visit are more taken up with natural details and knowing which of their relatives he saw in Heaven than they are about the enthroned Jesus.

One reviewer said, “'Heaven Is for Real' gently shares biblical truths in an accessible and non-preachy way—offering hope, encouragement and a strengthening of faith for both Christians and non-believers alike.” Non-preachy or otherwise, it is doubtful there is enough truth in the movie to bring a non-believer to Christ or, for that matter, to lift a believer higher because of its underlying message of "universalism." In answering who can go to Heaven, the film ends with a cross-less, Christ-less message of universal love.

Brain Implants: Doing the Unimaginable

Would you like to have a memory chip implanted in your brain giving you perfect recall? Or would connect your brain directly to the Internet? Scientists say brain implants may be as common as laser eye surgery in 10 years. Neuroprosthetics will become part of us, enhancing performance, changing how we perceive the world, and opening up possibilities heretofore unimaginable.

I couldn’t help but see the spiritual analogy. You and I already have an implant—the “mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:15). And although we ‘have’ His mind, we are responsible for employing it: “let the mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus” (Phil 2:15). That is, think as Jesus does, with “your mind on things above, where He is” (Col. 3:2). Just like those neuroprosthetics, the mind of Christ becomes part of us, changing the way we perceive the world, doing things heretofore thought unimaginable (1 Cor. 2:9).

At His Feet

One of the sweetest stories in the Gospels has to be when Jesus visited the home of Mary and Martha. While Martha had her ‘feet on the ground’—she was sensible and practical, Mary had her feet up, relatively speaking! While Martha fixated on festal foods, Mary yearned for finer fare at the feet of Jesus.

“Sitting at one’s feet” is a timeless idiom, meaning “pay worshipful attention to.” And while Mary was setting her mind on Jesus, a mortally-minded Martha was being held hostage to the familiar. This was Mary’s “break-out” moment—not to do great feats, but to love His.

“Falling at one’s feet” is another timeless idiom, with similar meaning. The Gospel writers record a number of times people fell at His feet and worshipped Him. I wonder how much more they would have done so, if they had known His feet would one day be nailed to a Cross for them. How different was their unrestrained expression from our Sunday morning church-goers sitting at the foot of a stage sipping coffee and eating doughnuts.

The Economy is Not the Only Thing "Going South"

Allegorically speaking, we all have an internal compass. When God originally designed Adam, He set the compass on “North,” pointing to Himself. We could say the compass kept Adam heavenly-minded or God-centered. After Adam sinned, the compass was reset to “South,” earth bound and self-centered. In my experience, that seems to be the “default” setting!

Every night while I sleep, my compass seems to reset itself to this default position. I awake to find my compass needle pointing “south.”

This expression "gone south" is used to define failure. Afer the Civil War, the term gone south was coined, meaning anything from the South was a failure. In recent contemporary use, the sluggish economy is described as going south.

If you have any of your self-life left at all, your compass needs to be reset each morning, to the “North,” heavenly-minded and God-directed. I wonder if this is what Paul meant when he said: Set your mind [compass] on things above, not on the things on earth (Colossians 3:2).

When you awoke this morning, in what direction was the needle on your internal compass set?

Did you reset it?