REVIEW: ANNA ROUNTREE’S BOOK A GREAT READ

I am not sure where everyone’s view of heaven is and our access while we are still living on earth BUT I personally like to blow the top off to the limits for children that we as adults have constructed so they can connect to God. A Children’s Ministry Leader I met once named Becky Fisher really inspired me to allow the kids to really get to know God.

GOD AND HEAVEN and the things of His kingdom are QUITE EASY FOR KIDS TO RELATE TO REALLY…I find it is us grown-ups that have so many hang-ups. I don’t like limits unless they are restrictions imposed by God in His WORD. No, we don’t swing from chandeliers in our house….IN FACT we actually we don’t have any in this rental anyway….we just don’t like imaginary limits.

So that being said…I found this fascinating book literally “dropped” in my lap by a friend who was donating it to our HisFireKids.com library.  I kept it aside to catalog for quite some time when the thought occurred to me…”Hey I have heard of Anna Rountree from somewhere……mmmmm”

WELL…I have started reading it and realized it IS a great read. And “Yes!” it is backed up theologically with notes and scripture references for your older kids if you want to make a study out of it.

STORY TIME FOR OLDER CHILDREN and YOUTH (4yo thru college)

THIS IS A GREAT STORYTIME BOOK FOR CHILDREN and YOUTH…..it reads like a well thought out creative writing book that is so descriptive it holds the kids on the edge of their seats!

I found a link to a reprint of the first few chapters…while it is more exciting to read it aloud BUT if you need it…the site also has an MP3 link of someone reading a longer excerpt…

The Heavens Opened

by Anna Rountree

The Attack

The sound was ancient and terrifying.
Startled, I spun around to see a colossal battering ram relentlessly moving under its own power across a desert basin. Its wooden wheels were at least sixty stories high, and they groaned and yawned under the extreme weight they bore. Blasphemies were carved into its black battering arm, the end of which was the iron head of a goat.
Although it moved slowly, people on the desert floor seemed helpless to avoid its path; they were crushed as it rolled over them. Screams filled the desert valley and ricocheted off distant rock formations, filling the desert basin with terror.
Slowly the battering ram topped a sandy hill and began to pick up speed going down the other side. Breathless from shock, I clawed with my hands and dug with my feet into the deep sand of the hill in order to reach the top and watch its path.
It picked up tremendous speed as it plunged down side of the hill into a deep valley. In its path at the bottom of the hill was a walled city. Both city and wall were the color of the sand and seemed to be half sunk into it, almost reclaimed by the sand from which they had come. In faded Lettering on the side of the wall, I could read: THE CHURCH.
The battering ram was massive, and the adobe wall of the city did not look strong. With brutal impact, the goat's head smashed into the wall and continued through it. It plowed through houses and buildings, losing little of its speed. When it broke through the wall on the opposite side of the city, it slowed to a stop, settling into the sand.
A strange silence fell.
Occasional screams broke this silence. They came from those who had been mutilated or from those who recognized that a loved one had been killed. But stranger than the silence was the fact that few sought to escape across the rubble of the wall---few.
Then slowly, all by itself, the battering ram began to start up the hill again, moving in my direction. The goat's head on the end of the ram was laughing, exhilarated, as if drunk with blood.
I thought it might see me, so I left the top of the hill and began to run in the opposite direction. As I ran, I frantically scanned the desert basin for a hiding place. I could hear the huge wheels laboring as they carried the battering ram toward the top of the hill again.
Suddenly an angel began to fly beside me. "Where can I hide from the battering ram?" I shouted as I ran.
"The battering ram rolls relentlessly over all the earth now. Up high," the angel said, "up higher than it can see is the only safe place. Let me show you."

The Escape

WITH A WAVE of the angel's hand, a stairway appeared, touching the earth and reaching beyond my view into heaven. I moved to the base of the stairs and looked up. I was still heaving from running.
The angel flew beside the stairs, higher than its base on earth, and waved me upward: "Come on!" the angel shouted. "The ram is coming, and we don't want him to see this stairway. Come on!"
There were no hand rails on the narrow stairs. The stairs were clear like glass, which can be slippery. I could hear the battering ram rolling; although I was still panting, I began to run up the stairs.
"Faster!" the angel called.
I kept my eyes on the stairs. In his hands the angel had a scarlet cord fastened to the stairs at the bottom. I could hear the battering ram getting closer, but the angel pulled the cord and brought up the first section of the stairway, like attic stairs that can be lowered and raised.
"Hurry!" the angel urged.
I continued to run up the steps, breathless. The angel pulled the thin rope, and another section of the stairs rose.
"Keep climbing," the angel said, although now his tone of voice was less urgent.
With a mighty effort, I completed the stairs and turned to make sure I had indeed escaped. The battering ram was directly below, rolling beneath us as the third section of the stairs was pulled up.
"You were safe after climbing the second set of stairs; but to be really safe, you needed to pass the third," he said.
As the battering ram rolled past, I tried to catch my breath and settle myself. Only then did I look around.
"Where am I?" I asked.

INTERESTED IN READING MORE?

THIS EXERPT IS IN ITS EXPANDED FORM AT:

http://www.divinerevelations.info/Documents/the_heavens_opened/The_Heavens_opened_by_Anna_Rountree.htm