169 pages. 4.7 hours of reading for an average person reading about 300 words per minute. After picking up Christy Beam’s book, “Miracles from Heaven” published on April 14, 2015, I was nothing short of inspired.

The plot of the story goes as follows: Annabel Beam is a young, 10 year old girl. Throughout her life she faced ample hardship due to her diagnosis of a rare digestive disorder. This disorder prevented her from living life like a “normal child.” Daily, Annabel “Anna” Beam would watch her friends, run, jump, play sports, and enjoy common childhood activities that are often taken for granted by children. Her mother Christy took it upon herself to devote her life to helping her daughter obtain this life, however, nothing was working.

While playing with her sisters, the girls decided to climb a tree while playing a game. Unfortunately, Anna slipped and plunged 30 feet down the hollow tree. This accident would have been life threatening, however, while the firefighters worked for 5 hours to save her life, she claimed to have “gone to Heaven” without actually dying. Anna described Heaven as a beautiful place where she not only saw Jesus, but her loved ones, as well as her favorite Mimi who had passed previously that year. After her time in Heaven had ended, she was miraculously saved from the tree with minor injuries, and fulfilled from her sighting of God.

The remainder of the novel involves Christy Beam revealing how Anna’s disease had been cured after sitting in Jesus’ lap and having a conversation with Him. Beam ended the book with insight on how the entire situation is God’s way of telling the world that he was still there.

While reading this novel, I felt empowered, and my mind was captivated by all the wonders that Heaven had to offer. Upon reading the novel, I presented the book to my family who had similar reactions to the book.

My younger sister, Georgia Brennan claimed how “[She] felt bad for the protagonist, Anna, throughout the story. However, [She] felt delighted that God gave Anna the strength to not only fight her illness, but witness God’s glory as well.”

In today’s world, society often makes it hard to stay strong in one’s beliefs. Especially regarding faith, the mixed opinions of America can rapidly change one’s opinions.

Currently, 74% of Catholics believe in Heaven. More generally, 38% of America believes in some type of afterlife. I wonder if this number would increase as the amount of people who read the novel consistently increases?

Both my sister and I agreed how Anna is a reminder that faith will continuously grow throughout one’s lifetime. Though Anna had always believed in God, this experience reassured her of His glory. The breathtaking work is actually based on a true story of mother Christy Beam and the miracle that she encountered with her daughter.

After completing the book, I only had one wish: To read the book again for the first time. Unfortunately, this was an impossible wish. However one day, I discovered that just a year after the book was published, a movie was created out of it. I was delighted to hear that I could relive the thrill of experiencing this empowering story again for the first time.

The “Miracles from Heaven” movie was published on March 16, 2016 by director Patricia Riggen. The movie is rated 4.8/5 stars and is 1 hour and 49 minutes long. It is currently rated PG due to the accident and medical images from Anna. The most common 1 star ratings include the idea that some scenes were too graphic for family viewing.

Director Patricia Riggen produced the movie with help from the scriptwriter, Randy Brown. Head Director, Riggen is most famous for her production of “The 33”, “La Milpa”, and “Under the Same Moon.” Riggen was born in Mexico, and loves to incorporate pieces of Mexican culture into all of her works.

With the key actors throughout the movie including: Jenifer Garner, Kylie Rogers, Martin Henderson, and Eugino Derbez, the movie has been nothing short of popular.

This deeply moving movie is categorized as a Christian Movie, however, I would recommend it to all faiths due to its message of miracles and how one should never give up no matter how difficult the hardship they are facing is.

72% of the readers preferred the movie version describing how the movie truly brought the scenes of Heaven visualized by Anna to life. These vibrant scenes exemplified in the movie won the Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie: Drama and was a great way to deeply connect with the characters in the novel.

Overall, “Miracles From Heaven” is an indescribable book that I would 100% recommend to absolutely anybody, regardless of the faith that they practice. The book is an excellent reminder that miracles do happen and anything is possible with the power of God.