I read through a good bit of Heaven is for Real this week after about a bazillion people mentioned it and that I should read it.
As I took in the things little Colton Burpo saw and understood of Jesus and Heaven, when he was the age of my precious son, I felt the contagious secret joy of the ones who see.
The little children see, like Colton, a God who has not been eaten up by cynicism or corrupted by the sinister ploys of the powers of this dark world. Even when you know and love Jesus all of your life, like me, your faith can become tainted with the passing of the years.
But it is always the pure in heart who see God and I want to see God. Oh, I really, really do.
As I walked around the day after reading Heaven is for Real, I had this smile that just would not go away. I thought of my mom who is, now, almost ten of our years there, but, like Colton’s 3 minutes, these years have taken on the form of infinity I am sure.
I thought of how she loved children so much and how she lost three to miscarriage. I’ve always thought she was with them somehow, but Colton’s account of meeting the sister his mother miscarried, made me think that she has probably barely left them in her time there. She has flitted about this heavenly world with her youth eternally renewed with those three in tow, oh I know it! I do! I also believe that at least one stayed a baby, or perhaps it is the grandbabies miscarried here that are the babies she holds in Heaven.
Yes, I would say this sweet contemplation is a secret joy to fill up this heart and spill over into twinkling eyes and overflowing delight-filled giggles.
But then, I also remember that, as in Colton’s experience, it all comes back to Jesus. 
{Akiane Kramarik’s painting, ‘Prince of Peace at age 8’…the one Colton said was ‘right’ }
He is the bridge even there. The One who takes us into his lap and tells us great and awesome things in pure and simple ways. He looks us in the eyes with His own gorgeous loved-filled ones and that is forever enough.
And when three minutes of this kind of love are enough to take in a touch of eternity, NOT ONLY for Colton who experienced it, but for all who would partake of this gift through a book, is it possible to imagine what an eternity of taking in this kind of love would touch? the depths of emotion and soul-encompassing ecstasy?
It is all a bit overwhelming and in the best of ways and the result, for me, can only be a secret kind of joy.
