Akiana Kramarik, widely proclaimed a child prodigy as a painter and poet, painted this image of Jesus when she was 8 --- from visions she had had of heaven beginning at the age of 4. She's 15 now.
She's been featured on CNN, PBS and Oprah Winfrey's talk show, among others. I first learned of it when reading "Heaven is for Real," an account of the Burpo family of Imperial, Neb., after their young son Colton suffered a burst appendix and nearly died at the age of 3.
After his against-the-odds recovery, Colton began sharing bits and pieces about a trip to heaven and back. His accounts included seeing things he couldn't possibly have seen from the operating room, and seeing and talking to relatives who had died long before he was born.
One of the things his parents noticed was that whenever they came across a painting of Jesus, he would tell them that Jesus didn't look like that. There was always something wrong with it.
Until his father came across Akiana's painting "Prince of Peace: The Resurrection" in early 2007. It was included in a story about Akiana by CNN. Todd Burpo was struck by how similar Akiana's descriptions of Jesus and heaven were to what his son Colton had shared...and that she had grown up with parents who were atheists, never talked about God and had no television and few books in the house.
Todd called Colton down to the basement and showed him the image, asking, "What's wrong with this one?"
Colton looked at it in silence for a long time, his face serious.
Finally, he turned and said, "Dad, this one's right."
The painting is beautiful. I watched the movie, Heaven is for Real. But I also really wanted to read the book
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