{"id":37134,"date":"2020-05-10T23:45:02","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T03:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=37134"},"modified":"2020-05-10T23:45:02","modified_gmt":"2020-05-11T03:45:02","slug":"review-of-waking-up-in-heaven-by-crystal-mcvea-and-alex-tresniowski","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=37134","title":{"rendered":"Review of Waking Up in Heaven, by Crystal McVea and Alex Tresniowski"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/waking_up_in_heaven_large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/waking_up_in_heaven_large.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"164\" height=\"250\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-37686\" \/><\/a><em>Waking Up in Heaven<\/p>\n<p>A True Story of Brokenness, Heaven, and Life Again<\/em><\/p>\n<p>by Crystal McVea<br \/>\nand Alex Tresniowski<\/p>\n<p>Howard Books (Simon &#038; Schuster), 2013.  245 pages.<br \/>\nReview written February 1, 2020, from a library book<\/p>\n<p>In December 2009, Crystal McVea died in a hospital room and spent time in the presence of God.  While there, he showed her his unconditional, overwhelming love for her.<\/p>\n<p>To show us how significant and earth-shaking that revelation was, Crystal tells her life story.  She was abused in her childhood beginning at three years old.  As a teen, she had an abortion.  She didn\u2019t feel remotely lovable or forgivable.<\/p>\n<p>But in heaven, Crystal saw a beautiful little girl and her heart filled with love for her.  Then God showed her that girl was herself.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>And then another understanding passed between God and me, and I knew this is what He\u2019d been trying to show me all my life.  He\u2019d been trying to show me how very much He loved me.<\/p>\n<p>I knew God was allowing me to see myself <em>as He saw me.<\/em>  And in His eyes I was an absolutely perfect creation, and I always would be.  All the things that happened to me on Earth, all the bad decisions that caused me to hate myself \u2013 none of it mattered.  I had believed God couldn\u2019t possibly love me, not after what had been done to me, not after what I had done.  But this belief was a lie, and God blasted the lie by showing me the intensity of His love for me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I believe intellectually that God loves each of us like that.  But this story put it into emotions, helped visualize that kind of love.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, Crystal has been telling her story and letting other people know how much God loves them.<\/p>\n<p>I read this book slowly, a little bit at a time, as I do with most nonfiction.  I think I might have enjoyed it more and kept the thread of the story better if I had read it more quickly.  But the overall message is powerful \u2013 that God has His hand on our lives, and God loves us.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.simonandschuster.com\/\">SimonandSchuster.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/1476711879\/sonderbooksco-20\" target=\"outside\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Find this review on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sonderbooks.com\">Sonderbooks<\/a> at: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sonderbooks.com\/Nonfiction\/waking_up_in_heaven.html\">www.sonderbooks.com\/Nonfiction\/waking_up_in_heaven.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n<p>Disclaimer:  I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-count=\"none\" data-via=\"Sonderbooks\">Tweet<\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Waking Up in Heaven A True Story of Brokenness, Heaven, and Life Again by Crystal McVea and Alex Tresniowski Howard Books (Simon &#038; Schuster), 2013. 245 pages. Review written February 1, 2020, from a library book In December 2009, Crystal McVea died in a hospital room and spent time in the presence of God. While [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian","category-nonfiction-review","category-true-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37134"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37688,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37134\/revisions\/37688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}