Todd Burpo Quotes

Sometimes laughter is the only way to process tough times

We'd been given a gift and our job now was to unwrap it ... and see what's inside.

Jesus has markers.

Is heaven a hope or as real as the earth and sky?

The Scripture says that as Jesus gave up his spirit, as he sagged there, lifeless on that Roman cross, God the Father turned his back. I am convined that he did that because if he kept on watching, he couldn't have gone through with it.

Jesus clearly viewed children as precious - and that if he loved kids enough to say that adults should be more like them, we should spend more time loving them too.

It's fun to talk about heaven, about the throne of God and Jesus and Pop and the daughter we thought we had lost but will meet again someday. But it's not fun to talk about how we got there.

How do you scare some sense into a child who doesn't fear death?

A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master."1

Yeah, she said she just can't wait for you and Daddy to get to heaven. ... From that moment on, the wound from one of the most painful episodes in our lives, losing a child we had wanted very much, began to heal.

I smoothed Colton's blanket across his chest and tucked him in snug the
way he liked - and for the first time since he started talking about heaven, I
intentionally tried to trip him up. "I remember you saying you stayed with
Pop," I said. "So when it got dark and you went home with Pop, what did
you two do?"
Suddenly serious, Colton scowled at me. "It doesn't get dark in heaven,
Dad! Who told you that?"
I held my ground. "What do you mean it doesn't get dark?"
"God and Jesus light up heaven. It never gets dark. It's always bright."
The joke was on me. Not only had Colton not fallen for the "when it gets
dark in heaven" trick, but he could tell me why it didn't get dark: "The city
does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives
it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.

When God does a miracle somehow you have to respond. When God does things for you - maybe we don't deserve them and we can never really repay God but God really wants us to respond to them. He doesn't want us to stay the same. So, for us to respond to what God has done in our lives is probably the same way he would want anyone to do - "Just tell people what I've done for you and what you've seen and heard." That's what we're doing.

A friend of ours, the wife of a pastor at a church in Colorado, had once told me about something her daughter, Hannah, said when she was three years old. After the morning service was over one Sunday, Hannah tugged on her mom's skirt and asked. "Mommy, why do some people in church have lights over their heads and some don't?" At the time, I remember thinking two things: First, I would've knelt down and asked Hannah, "Did I have a light over my head? Please say yes!" I also wondered what Hannah had seen, and whether she had seen it because, like my son, she had a childlike faith.

I'd once heard a spiritual "riddle" that went like this: "What's the only thing
in heaven that's the same as it was on earth?"
The answer: the wounds in Jesus' hands and feet.

Cassie suggested He's Back, but He's No Angel.

I think sometimes we think faith is about having all the answers. It isn't. But (it's) the thing that keeps you steady and in peace in the midst of storms.

The Bible's been attacked. What is truth? It's relative.

Now was not the time to quit and mourn. Now was the time for prayer and action.

Where are there lots of colors, Colton?" "In Heaven, Dad. That's where all the rainbow colors are!