30 Day Blog Challenge – Day 4 – Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Welcome to Day 4 of The 30 Day Blog Challenge hosted by my daughter, C.C., here I’m On My Way

and her online BFF Jamee at A New Kind of Normal.

Today’s assignment is to post a blog post of your favorite photograph of your best friend.

Since I don’t have a literal picture of my best friend I googled and found 200+ pictures. Many people probably recognize this one with the little children.

As I thought about today’s blog challenge several times, I kept thinking about a book I read last year and especially a certain portion of the book. Thus, I’m going to share the following with you from my google search since our copy of the book has been loaned out.

Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back [Book] by Todd Burpo, Sonja Burpo, Lynn Vincent, Colton Burpo in Books

By Todd Burpo, Sonja Burpo, Lynn Vincent, Colton Burpo – Thomas Nelson (2010) – Paperback -163 pages-ISBN 0849946158

A young boy emerges from life-saving surgery with remarkable stories of his visit to heaven. This is the true story of the four year old son of a small town Nebraska pastor who during emergency surgery slips from consciousness and enters heaven. He survives and begins talking about being able to look down and see the doctor operating and his dad praying in the waiting room. The family didn’t know what to believe, but soon the evidence was clear. He shared impossible to know details about his great grandfather and his miscarried sister; he described the horse that only Jesus could ride; and about how reaaally big God and his chair are. Told by his father, but often in Colton’s own words, the disarmingly simple message is that heaven is a real place and Jesus really loves children.

Preview this book on Google Book Search

Every now and then, throughout the last half of the book, Colton is shown different pictures of Jesus and asked if they are accurate depictions of what he remembers Jesus looked like. The authors never tell us which pictures Colton looked at. In the end Colton is shown an online picture. “Dad, that one’s right,” he exclaims. It is the Akiane portrait of Jesus.

Akiane Kramarik seems to be a child visionary. Growing up in a home with an Atheist mother and a lapsed Catholic father, she apparently began having “divinely inspired visions,” which she translated into poetry and art. By age four (Colton’s age) she was painting and writing poetry. There can be no denying, at least, that she is a prodigy. She appeared on CNN, World News Tonight and the Oprah Winfrey Show. Forget that she is a child; her work is amazing. She was just eight-years-old when she painted Prince of Peace, her first portrait of Jesus. This is the painting Colton said was right. It is reproduced in the back of every copy of this best seller.

The phrase, My Best Friend is Jesus, kept coming to my mind. I seem to recall that it’s a hymn, but I couldn’t find it through google searching. However, this hymn also is about My Best Friend and says way more than I can say.

What a Friend We Have in Jesus
Words: Joseph Scriven, 1819-1866
Music: Charles C. Converse, 1832-1918
Converse 8.7.8.7.D.
Public Domain

What a friend we have in Jesus,
All or sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Ev’rything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
Oh, what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Ev’rything to God in prayer!

Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged,
Take it to the Lord in prayer:
Can we find a friend so faithful
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our ev’ry weakness,
Take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy laden,
Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge;
Take it to the Lord in prayer:
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer;
In His arms He’ll take and shield thee;
Thou wilt find a solace there.

Thank You, Jesus, for being My Best Friend!!!!!!!