How do you hold onto faith when God feels distant and your prayers seem unanswered? For parents facing a child’s suffering, this question is painfully real.
It’s a daily battle that tests the foundations of what we believe.
The Beam Family’s Unforeseen Trial
The Beam family lives a happy, faith-filled life in Texas. Their world is shaken when their ten-year-old daughter, Anna, begins to suffer from violent vomiting and intense stomach pain.
Her mother, Christy, takes her to several doctors. They dismiss the condition as lactose intolerance or acid reflux.
Christy’s maternal instinct tells her something is seriously wrong. The pain worsens, and Anna’s belly becomes unnaturally bloated.
A local doctor finally performs more tests and diagnoses Anna with a severe and incurable intestinal motility disorder. The condition makes it impossible for her to eat normally.
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Desperate for a cure, Christy learns of a top pediatric specialist in Boston, Dr. Samuel Nurko. She calls for months but cannot get an appointment.
Refusing to give up, Christy takes Anna and flies to Boston anyway, hoping for a chance to see the doctor.
In Boston, a kind waitress named Angela befriends the weary mother and daughter. She takes them on a tour of the city, bringing a moment of joy into their difficult situation.
During the tour, Christy receives a call that Dr. Nurko has a sudden opening and will see them.
Dr. Nurko is compassionate and funny, but he confirms the devastating diagnosis. There is no cure for Anna’s condition.
The family must now manage her constant pain through feeding tubes and medications. The ordeal takes a toll on everyone.
Christy’s husband, Kevin, works extra hours and sells possessions to cover the mounting medical bills.
Anna’s health continues to decline. At one point, she tells her mother she wants to die and go to heaven where there is no more pain.
Christy’s own faith begins to crumble under the weight of her daughter’s suffering and her unanswered prayers.
After another hospital stay, Anna is allowed to return home. One day, she and her older sister Abbie climb a large, hollow cottonwood tree in their yard.
The branch they are on suddenly cracks. Anna falls thirty feet, headfirst, down the hollow trunk of the tree.
Emergency crews rush to the scene, fearing the worst. They carefully extract Anna from the tree, expecting to find her with catastrophic injuries.
To everyone’s astonishment, she has only minor scrapes and bruises. At the hospital, doctors run tests and make an impossible discovery.
Not only did Anna survive the fall, but her incurable digestive disorder has completely vanished.
Faith in the Face of Suffering
Miracles from Heaven explores the difficult questions that arise when a loving God allows immense suffering. The film centers on Christy Beam’s crisis of faith, a depiction that feels authentic and raw.
As she watches her daughter Anna endure constant pain, her circumstances push her belief system to its breaking point. She grows angry with God and feels alienated from her church.
She openly questions God’s goodness and wrestles with why a loving father would permit such a trial. This struggle mirrors the story of Job.
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Like Job, Christy is confronted with unexplainable hardship. Some members of her church offer simplistic and hurtful explanations and suggest her family’s sin is the cause of Anna’s illness.
This portrayal of the church community is balanced, showing both its capacity for judgment and its potential for true support. Christy’s husband, Kevin, remains a steady source of spiritual encouragement and reminds her not to lose hope.
Instead, the film proposes that God’s work is also visible in simple acts of human compassion. The story presents a friendly waitress, a compassionate doctor, and supportive neighbors as signs of provision and grace.
They are God’s way of showing He is present even when He feels silent. Anna’s own experience after the fall adds another layer.
She describes visiting a beautiful, peaceful heaven and speaking with God. The film presents this vision without insisting on a literal interpretation and allows viewers to decide for themselves.
The narrative clearly affirms God had a hand in her healing. The story concludes that these events are God’s way of reminding us that He is here and that He works in ways we may not always understand.
Finding Hope in Hardship
This film offers powerful reminders for our own walks with God when we face difficult seasons. One key lesson is to look for God’s hand in the small, everyday moments.
We often pray for a big, dramatic intervention, but God frequently works through the kindness of others. In the film, a waitress named Angela takes Christy and Anna on a tour of Boston.
This simple act of friendship provides a much-needed break from the stress of the hospital and reminds Christy she is not alone. Angela expects nothing in return and demonstrates a selfless love that mirrors God’s grace during a time of desperation.
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It shows us that God’s love can appear in the form of an unexpected friend. Another important takeaway is that it is okay to struggle with your faith.
Christy reaches a point where she tells God she can no longer pray or believe. Her honesty does not push God away, and her experience shows that an authentic faith can include doubt, anger, and questions.
Her faith is restored in the end. This teaches us that God is big enough to handle our frustrations and will meet us in our brokenness.
Finally, the film challenges us to be a better community to those who are suffering. We see how church members who judge the Beam family cause harm.
The film also shows friends who offer practical help like babysitting without providing easy answers. This encourages us to offer a quiet, supportive presence and avoid empty platitudes when others are in pain.
What Critics and Audiences Are Saying
Miracles from Heaven received a mixed but generally positive reception. It successfully connected with its intended audience and even crossed over to the mainstream.
Critics praised the film for its affecting story and strong performances. Jennifer Garner’s portrayal of Christy Beam earned praise as compelling and authentic, and her performance captured a mother’s fierce determination.
The performance of Kylie Rogers as Anna was also noted for being natural and moving. Reviewers pointed out that the film handled its faith-based themes with more subtlety than other movies in the genre.
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They appreciated its realistic approach to doubt and suffering, which made the story relatable to a broader audience. The film was a box-office success, which shows viewers responded well to its uplifting message.
The divide between critics and viewers is clear in the audience scores. The film holds an 81% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, which contrasts with the lower critic rating, and viewers on IMDb gave it a 7.1/10.
It also earned a rare A+ CinemaScore, a sign of exceptional public reception. Not all reviews were positive.
Critics who disliked the movie found it to be overly sentimental, predictable, and manipulative. A few critics described it as having one-dimensional characters and a “preachy” screenplay.
The visual depiction of heaven was a common point of criticism, and a few called the sequence cheesy or uninspired. Despite these critiques, most agreed that the film effectively delivers an inspiring and tear-jerking story for those looking for a faith-affirming experience.
From Memoir to the Big Screen
The film is based on the true story detailed in the 2015 memoir Miracles from Heaven, written by the real-life Christy Beam. The project was helmed by producers who also worked on the successful faith-based film Heaven Is for Real, another story about a child’s near-death experience.
Their experience with similar themes helped shape the film’s sensitive approach to the material. The production team brought together a talented group to tell the Beam family’s story.
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Director Patricia Riggen, known for her work on The 33, guided the film’s intimate tone. Her husband, Checco Varese, served as the cinematographer.
The cast features Jennifer Garner as Christy Beam, with Queen Latifah playing the friendly waitress Angela and Eugenio Derbez as the compassionate Dr. Nurko.
A key element of the story, the massive hollow cottonwood tree, was a practical effect. Production designer David R. Sandefur and his team built a convincing replica for the fall scene.
To emphasize the story’s authenticity, the filmmakers included footage of the actual Beam family at the end of the movie. This addition gives viewers a glimpse into their lives after the events depicted in the film.
Is This Movie for You?
Miracles from Heaven is a moving and well-acted drama that stands out in the faith-based genre. It handles difficult themes of suffering and doubt with a gentle honesty that viewers will appreciate.
While the story follows a predictable path, the heartfelt performances from Jennifer Garner and Kylie Rogers make the family’s struggle feel real and compelling.
This film is recommended for families and individuals seeking an inspiring story that affirms God’s presence in the midst of hardship. It provides a useful starting point for conversations about faith, healing, and the nature of supernatural events.
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Parents should be aware of the content. The film depicts a child’s severe suffering from a serious illness, including scenes with feeding tubes and vomiting.
A key scene involves a child falling from a dangerous height into a tree, which is frightening. The story also deals with mature themes, such as a child’s wish to die to escape pain and a mother’s crisis of faith.
Viewers sensitive to themes of medical distress or child endangerment should consider this before watching. There are a few exclamations of “oh my god.”
A married couple kisses, and a man appears shirtless. Ready to see the story for yourself? Watch Miracles from Heaven on Amazon Prime Video today.
Join the Conversation
The film shows that grace often appears in small, unexpected acts of kindness. Beyond the main event, what smaller moment of grace in the movie stood out to you the most?
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