Seeing The Face Of Jesus

Of the literally dozens of portraits of Jesus we’d seen since 2003, Colton had still never seen one he thought was right.

Well, I thought, may as well see what he thinks of Akiane’s attempt.

I got up from the desk and hollered up the stairs for Colton to come down to the basement. . . .

“Take a look at this,” I said, nodding toward the computer monitor. “What’s wrong with this one?”

He turned to the screen and for a long moment said nothing.

“Colton?”

But he just stood there, studying. I couldn’t read his expression.

“What’s wrong with this one, Colton?” I said again.

Utter silence.

I nudged him in the arm. “Colton?”

My seven-year-old turned to look at me and said, “Dad, that one’s right.”

—HEAVEN IS FOR REAL, 144–145

Todd

It’s hard to describe the feelings I had that day when, after three years of showing Colton pictures of Jesus and having him reject them, a picture painted by a little girl we’d never met connected with him so strongly, without question, that it stopped him in his tracks.

A friend had sent me a three-minute CNN clip that told the story of a girl in Idaho, twelve years old at the time of the report, who had started having visions of heaven at age four. Her name is Akiane Kramarik, she’s Lithuanian-American, and her descriptions of heaven, shared in the CNN 2006 report, included references to out-of-this-world colors and Jesus’ extraordinarily beautiful eyes.

The really amazing thing, to me at least, was that at that time Akiane’s parents were atheists, and God was never mentioned in their home. The family didn’t watch television. Akiane was homeschooled. Yet she repeated her vivid descriptions of heaven so many times, first in words and then in paintings, that her mother, knowing Akiane couldn’t have heard or seen these things anywhere else, believed she was spiritually awakened.

This time God wasn’t speaking to the pastor’s kid. He was speaking to the child of a nonbelieving family.

The CNN report included some of Akiane’s beautifully detailed paintings, including a close-up of her portrait of Christ. I paused the video and called Colton to come and see it, and the sight of it stopped him cold.

He was six-going-on-seven by the time he saw Akiane’s picture of Jesus. He’d rejected so many other pictures depicting how artists had imagined Christ’s likeness that I expected him to discount this one too. But when I showed him the picture, he saw those striking, unforgettable eyes looking out at him again.

We got Akiane’s (and her parents’) permission to reproduce her picture, titled Prince of Peace: The Resurrection, in Heaven Is for Real. The response has been almost beyond comprehension. We’ve heard from parents who’ve told us about their children who had recovered from some kind of life-threatening experience or had seen visions and had begun telling stories similar to Colton’s. Typically, the parents had read Heaven Is for Real, and they’d opened it to show Akiane’s painting to their children. “That’s him,” the children would say. “That’s Jesus. That’s the one I saw in heaven.”

A mom in North Platte told us her son Jeremiah had had eye surgery the day after he turned four. When the time came for them to take him back to surgery, he got scared. His mom, Barb, prayed with him and asked God to send his angels to watch over Jeremiah and keep him safe.

When her son woke up from the operation, Barb asked if he had seen the angels during the surgery. Jeremiah told her, “No, I just see’d Jesus. He holded my hands when the doctor fixed my eyes.”

At the time, Barb had never heard of Colton Burpo or the story of his trip to heaven and back. But eighteen months later, she was reading Heaven Is for Real, and without telling Jeremiah anything about the book, she showed him Akiane’s picture of Jesus and asked if he knew who it was.

Jeremiah replied matter-of-factly, “Yeah, that’s Jesus. That’s who held my hands when the doctor fixed my eyes.”

It’s been astonishing how many confirmations we’ve gotten that the man Colton identifies as Jesus—the man Akiane saw from heaven and painted so beautifully—is the same man dozens of others have said they saw during similar experiences.

And not just kids but adults too. But because of their innocence, it’s the kids’ confirmations that seem so powerful. That’s the genuine innocence I saw in Colton’s face as he told me about his visit to heaven.

In the years since, I tried to absorb all he had told me about that visit and tried to imagine what he saw: Jesus’ beard, his “pretty eyes,” the “markers” on his hands and feet. But nothing prepared me for the wow moment when he saw Akiane’s painting—and I saw him recognize a familiar face.

Suddenly, everything Colton had told me seemed to come into clearer focus. It all made sense.

Today, I want to assure you, this picture from Akiane is for real. Just like heaven is for real and God is for real. And I believe, based on the confirmations I’ve received, that although the picture was painted by a young child, it’s pretty close to being accurate.

People ask me today, “Are you convinced that picture is really what Jesus looks like?”

In response, I ask them, “How much evidence do you need? How much does it take for God to convince you that something is right?”

For me, after millions of copies of Heaven Is for Real have been sold around the world, after hundreds of testimonies shared in person or by letter or e-mail, and by living with a boy who’s a stickler for details, yes, I’m convinced. I have a copy of the picture hanging in my office, and I’m looking at it now. I believe I’m seeing the One who held my son on his lap in heaven.

Go to artnsoulwrks.com to see Prince of Peace: The Resurrection, Akiane’s portrait of Jesus.

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

—1 Corinthians 13:12 KJV