Reflections on The Shack

Well, I have finally finished reading "The Shack . I could take the rest of this post discussing the theological genius or heresy one might believe exists in this story, however this would not do justice to the creative wonder Young has pieced together. This book took me quite some time to read, simply because I got bored about a third of the way into it and put it down. Although, after many people coming up to me and asking my thoughts on the book, I decided to pick it back up and finish it. I am truly grateful for those questioning people for getting me to finish this book.

What impressed me the most about this story was Young's ability to portray the absolute love which exists the triune God. Multiple times throughout the story the love of the Father, Papa, towards the Son and Holy Spirit and visa-versa is displayed. But Young also captures the love of God towards his creation, especially us.

Near the end of the book (I don't believe this is a spoiler so don't worry about reading further if you have not read the book) when Mack is speaking with his friend Willy, he tells Willy that God has a message for him and that message is, "Tell Willie that I'm especially fond of him." As I read that it was as if the message was from God to me, "Tell Scott that I'm especially fond of him." This almost brought tears to my eyes, which if you ask my wife is, well, impossible. However I was overwhelmed in the idea that God is especially fond of me. I still can't really grasp that concept. The creator of the universe is especially fond of me, and of you.

I am convinced that if we are able to continually remind ourselves that God is especially fond of us our lives will be filled with joy. We may never fully understand the love God has for us, however if we can catch a small portion of his fondness for us, we will be complete. I am not sure why it took me until the end of this book to get what Young was driving home the whole time, however I hope that today you can grasp the idea that God is especially fond of you. Theology aside, grasping the idea of God's fondness of me made this book well worth my time to read.