Drawing upon his own experiences, author James Bryan Smith has written an insightful, realistic account of what Heaven just might be like. Smith is best known as the man who wrote Rich Mullins' biography, An Arrow Pointing to Heaven, but Room of Marvels has stretched him into the land of fiction, for the first time ever.

The small book tells the story of a man, very much like Smith himself, who has lost his mother, his daughter, and his best friend all in the space of a single year. The story details of the main character all come from real life -- Smith's own mother, daughter, and best friend (Mullins) really died in one year's time. Smith found himself questioning everything he'd ever believed, but eventually found his faith again, firmly rooted in the truth of eternity.

Smith takes these events from his own life and dramatizes them with a fictional account of a man who ventures to a monestary to "find himself" after suffering these losses, and falls into a deep sleep one night after finding no comfort in his surroundings. The dream he experiences is more real, more vivid than any other dream he's ever had.

In the dream, he travels to a cabin where he meets an old friend who died long ago. In the cabin he sees a picture of himself as a happy little boy -- a picture which was never taken. The picture, he is told, is a snapshot taken by God himself -- "one of his favorites." Tim (the main character) is then taken on a journey through this land, which resembles a beautiful mountainside, where he meets friends and loved ones who have all died. Only here, they are more alive than ever, in ways that Smith brings to life with vibrant accuracy.

All the while, every character reminds him that at the end of his journey awaits something called the "room of marvels," which is to become his eternal home. But before he can visit the room, he must let go of the pain and anger that currently clouds his life. It doesn't take him long to realize that he's somehow been granted a vision of Heaven -- a very realistic vision of what Heaven will be like.

What I like most about this novel is how Smith takes the idea of seeing Heaven with one's own two eyes, and goes further with it than most would ever dare, full of rich and surprising details. Of course, much of it is speculative, as it must be, but that's the beauty of fiction: you can get away with educated guesses without having to justify yourself. Surprises and heartwarming developments await, all of which are too good to spoil. But the wondrous detail with which he describes Heaven is greater and deeper than any I've ever read.

For example, one part of the book has Tim meeting up with "Wayne," his best friend, a musician who'd died suddenly in a car accident. Most readers will recognize this scenario as a depiction of Rich Mullins ("Wayne" was even the name that Mullins used among his close friends and family). In the book, Wayne is happy and carefree, spending much of his time composing new music and having it expressed to perfection, on the spot, with amazing sounds that pour forth from the land around him, on command. It's a clever way of saying that what you're passionate about on earth you'll still be able to do in Heaven -- only without all of the imperfections of humanity holding you back.

Room of Marvels is more than just a treatise on Heaven. It's a very realistic study of human grief, and a reminder of the importance of focusing on our eternal selves, and not these bodies of flesh that we get so distracted by. And I defy anyone not to be moved by the book's ending, which I won't spoil for you here. It's not hard to guess where the story is headed once you get into it, but it's still profoundly affecting when you get there.

Since my father died two years ago, I've found myself pondering the reality of Heaven quite often. What will it really be like? What will we look like? What will we spend our time doing? I've spent many an hour looking for Biblically-sound details about what to expect in Heaven, and have always come up disappointed. And then Room of Marvels arrived on my doorstep, and it was everything I'd been searching for.

Anyone who is curious about the reality of Heaven, and especially anyone who has suffered a painful loss and gone through all of the anger and grief associated with that -- you simply must read this book.