Book Talk

 Warning...this may be a long post lol. My godparents always give me a book for Christmas and it's generally Christmas related. My godmother told me that this year, it was a little bit different but she didn't want to say anything more.

Upon opening it Christmas morning, my mouth dropped and tears sprang to my eyes. The book is called Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo. The reason for my reaction is that a few weeks ago at my friend Tony's funeral, the Father was talking about that book and I had put it on my "to read" list. Definitely something special going on here! Oh Tony would have got a kick out of that for sure (he loved to read and write things).

This book is about a boy who went to heaven and he shares his experiences with his family and friends. Oh boy did this book get me thinking. One thing that struck me were the correlations between this book and teaching, for me at least.

There was a helpless situation in this book and sometimes I see pain in kids' eyes in the class and I'm helpless in these cases too. Some of the time I can fix the problems, but there are some that I can't do anything as a sub or as a teacher.

Another correlation is that anger solves nothing. Sometimes I get mad or upset with how a student is behaving when I know they can be so much better. But I never show it because there is no good in getting angry with a kid. For some kids, it adds fuel to the fire and they rebel more. I've found that if I get eye level and talk calmly, things diffuse pretty quickly. Same applies to life. Sure in the spur of the moment it might feel good to yell, but does it solve anything? Nope.

This book also made me just think, with the talk about everyone bathed in light and having wings, to the colors in Heaven, Armageddon, and us looking young when we are there. The author mentions his son sees loved ones in Heaven. How great will that be, getting there and having your family waiting?

This book had me look at the connections to it in my life. Colors and rainbows are a topic in the book that I have a connection with. On the day I found out my great-grandma had passed away, I saw a rainbow shortly after, as if it was her way of saying goodbye. She's my Uroma, my German great-grandma, so I saw her not as much as I would have liked to, but we had a special connection.

Or the power of prayer. The boy in the story needs a lot of prayer and the power of it is a miracle. I've seen what the power of prayer can do. My aunt and uncle prayed a lot after my cousin's accident. And just when they were praying about life support, her pulse slowed til it stopped, answering for them.

And my mom's friend's niece. Baby girl who needed a liver transplant and was very close to dying. She got part of her mom's liver (the mom is thankfully tiny and so the liver piece was compatible) and now she's looking so good and getting strong!

Or the most powerful miracle I can think of, which is the chief of police, a friend, surviving after the bank bombing. So much prayer went to him and by all means he should have died. I went to the hospital frequently and I still remember the day that I was in there in ICU watching him, and a friend of ours began playing music on the guitar. Scott started twitching. Oh we all started crying, even the guard on duty!


One last thought, and that is  Jesus is a teacher. If He is our teacher, then we are the students. We still have so much to learn!

I really enjoyed this book and boy did it make me have more questions. I would recommend this book, for sure!