I can't stop thinking about Vivian, and I can't stop thinking about Heaven. I can't stop thinking about this girl, her dark poetry, her nuanced eye for composition and photography, and the fact that, as a little girl, she was the most adventurous eater on Planet Earth. I even wrote about her … [Read more...]
For One More Father’s Day: The Gifts We’d Give
Happy Father's Day, Dad! People keep saying you're in a better place, and I believe them. But that still doesn't mean we don't wish things were different. It doesn't mean we don't think it absolutely sucks to lose a dad and an Opa to lung cancer, you who never smoked in your life, except … [Read more...]
Heaven, Pope Francis, and Dinah Blue the Basset Hound
Apparently Pope Francis's words about pets going to Heaven have been wildly twisted. What he really said was this: "The pope's talk to the crowd that day centered on the End Times and the transformation of all creation into a "new heaven" and a "new earth." Citing St. Paul … [Read more...]
11 Things I’d Say If Heaven Had Visiting Hours on Father’s Day
Happy Father’s Day, Dad. It’s been way too long since you've been gone. Eight years, almost. Every time another year rolls by and the anniversary of your death comes up again, I can’t believe it. How can you have been gone this long? How have we managed without you? Isn’t it time … [Read more...]
10 Thoughts on “Heaven is for Real,” Heaven “previews,” and how John MacArthur Crossed a Line
If anyone has a reason to dislike Heaven Is for Real, both the book and the movie, it’s me. As the co-writer of another Heaven book, My Journey to Heaven, I could be insanely jealous of the 2010 Thomas Nelson smash hit, as that book far outsold the back-from-heaven book written by Marvin Besteman … [Read more...]