The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven sold more than 1 million copies and spent months on the New York Times’ bestseller list. It was also on the leading edge of a boomlet of “heaven tourism” stories in Christian publishing, including Heaven Is for Real, a memoir about 4-year-old Colton Burpo’s experience that came out later and was eventually adapted into a movie starring Greg Kinnear.

The four year old Colton’s amazing story of his trip to Heaven and back is described in the book and movie Heaven Is For Real. He had a near-death-experience in his life and lived to tell about going to Heaven and sitting on the lap of the resurrected Jesus.

After surviving emergency surgery when he was three years old, he slowly began sharing his life changing experience of visiting Heaven with others. Everyone in the local community, including his parents and members of his church where Todd, Colton’s dad, is the minister, he doubted little Colton and initially thought the child’s mind was playing tricks on him.

According to Colton’s parents, Todd and Sonja Burpo, after Colton’s appendix burst, his condition was life threatening. As Colton underwent emergency surgery, his parents were distraught with despair and spent hour after hour at the hospital praying.

God answered his parents’ prayers; Colton made it through surgery and eventually made a full recovery. However, once home from the hospital, his parents felt there was a “difference” in Colton and they could not quite put their finger on what it was. Todd and Sonja discovered the source of that “difference” approximately four months after the tragic incident, when Colton began sharing what he had seen in Heaven with his parents. After Colton revealed many shocking and private family details, his parents began to realize that their son had indeed had an encounter with God and a Heavenly experience.

Colton told his parents that the angels sang to him so he would not be afraid. He told them that he sat on Jesus’ lap, surrounded by winged angels. He could describe everyone he saw in Heaven and shared details about Jesus, the Archangel Michael with his special sword, Mary, John the Baptist, and even his unborn sister, who had died in his mommy’s tummy. He’s revelations about his experience did not end there. He was able to describe Jesus in both character and appearance in detail. He went on to say that Jesus then sent him back to earth to answer Todd’s prayers.

As he shared more and more of his experiences with his parents they didn’t know what to think. Of course, they wanted to believe their son, but they could not understand his experience. Colton had been very sick, but he hadn’t actually died on the operating table, like others who have had near-death experiences. Skeptics have tried to explain away Colton’s experience based on his knowledge of Bible stories. Colton’s parents were skeptical too – then Colton unexpectedly began to share even more astonishing revelations that further confirmed his heavenly visitation was true and that knowing the truth about heaven changes everything.

One time Colton asked his parents why they were sitting in separate rooms during his surgery. He said he had seen them from Heaven. His parents knew there was no way Colton could have known this. The boy also explained that he had met his great-grandfather, a man who had died three decades before Colton was born. Colton pointed him out in a photo to his parents – a photo Colton had never seen, one of when his great grandfather was about 30 years old. Colton even knew his nickname, ‘Pops.’