“Heaven Is For Real” Becomes Available For Children: Also, boy who inspired the novel recalls his experience

The bestselling book, “Heaven is For Real,” recalls the visions of a 4-year-old boy who claims to have seen heaven while undergoing an emergency appendectomy. The popular story is now also available in a fully illustrated children’s version.

12-year-old, Colton Burpo, who is the inspiration behind the best-selling book, “Heaven Is For Real,” recalls his experience after eight years.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

“Colton, you said that angels sang to you while you were at the hospital?”

He nodded his head vigorously.

“What did they sing to you?”

“Dad, Jesus had the angels sing to me because I was so scared. They made me feel better.”

Jesus?

I glanced at Sonja again and saw that her mouth had dropped open. I turned back to Colton. “You mean Jesus was there?”

My little boy nodded as though reporting nothing more remarkable than seeing a ladybug in the front yard. “Yeah, Jesus was there.”

“Well, where was Jesus?”

Colton looked me right in the eye. “I was sitting in Jesus’ lap.”

“Colton, where were you when you saw Jesus?”

“At the hospital. You know, when Dr. O’Holleran was working on me.”

“Well, Dr. O’Holleran worked on you a couple of times, remember?” I said. Colton had both an emergency appendectomy and then an abdominal clean-out in the hospital, and later we had taken Colton to have some keloid scarring removed, but that was at Dr. O’Holleran’s office. “Are you sure it was at the hospital?”

Colton nodded. “Yeah, at the hospital. When I was with Jesus, you were praying, and Mommy was talking on the phone.”

“But you were in the operating room, Colton,” I said. “How could you know what we were doing?”

“’Cause I could see you,” Colton said matter-of-factly. “I went up out of my body and I was looking down and I could see the doctor working on my body. And I saw you and Mommy. You were in a little room by yourself, praying; and Mommy was in a different room, and she was praying and talking on the phone.”

From “Heaven Is for Real” by Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent. Copyright © 2010. Reprinted by permission of Thomas Nelson.