by Akiane and Foreli Kramarik, 2006
Short biography of Akiane, the girl who painted the picture of Jesus that the little boy from Heaven Is for Real identified as the Jesus he saw in heaven. This book tells the story of her life up to age 10 and includes her poetry and her paintings. I find the paintings haunting and dark, and the poetry is incomprehensible. However, she says something about one of her paintings, the one of Eve, that is incredibly insightful: “The knowledge of good and evil is simply too much for a human to understand and experience, and now Eve is looking up to God for forgiveness and help.” Same thing that Wayne said about humans and the fall – we are not equipped to deal with the knowledge of evil. Also, although she never mentions the Bible in this book, she does speak God’s will for us – to love Him and to love others. She also has painted pictures of a young Asian girl, about 2 years old, and another one of two African babies, who were abandoned and left to die but who were adopted and cared for and became healthy. She has a heart for abandoned children. She says, “It is because of our selfishness that they suffer and die.”
Her dedication of the book: “I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO MY FATHER IN HEAVEN AND HIS CREATION.”
Starting at age 4, she started having visions of heaven. Her parents were atheist at this point.
Here’s how she described heaven: “I eat there, but I don’t go to the bathroom. The plants there move and sing when I move and talk. It seems as if they can think. Animals there are not like here. They listen to me, and they’re not afraid of me, so I can pet them whenever I want. Some of them create the most amazing plant sculptures. I also fly on top of huge birds there while I am strapped inside a cage that looks like this.” She touched a diamond inside my sedding ring. “I am good there, and I listen there. Everyone listens there–God is there.”
Then, her parents decide to believe in God…”After several discussions, both of us came to the conclusion that it was better to believe in God and to be wrong than to believe that there was no God and to be right. The way we thought about it, we had nothing to lose by believing.”
Here’s how she describes the music she hears in heaven: “…the music I hear in heaven is better than here. This music hurts my ears and my head really bad, but heavenly music is always gentle. I can’t tell you how different it is from what you hear on earth! It feels like joy, looks like love, smells like flowers, and dances like butterflies. Music there is alive! You can even taste it!”
Here’s a verse of her poetry, which the words are just given to her and when she was little, her mother would write them down. Akiane does not know what they mean:
“If some are chosen to bow down to wear the yokes
Some are chosen to live a spark
The scabs are puzzled everlastingly
Weaned honor is delivered in the midst of dark…”
Her answer to “What message do you want people to get from your art and poetry?” “I want my art to draw people’s attention to God, and I want my poetry to keep their attention on God.”
Here’s the last paragraph of the short biography:
“Akiane is convinced that the greatest gift we could give to God, who has everything and does not need anything except our love, is for us to love one another and walk in faith, day by day, hour by hour…”