Disclaimer: Please have mercy and forgive me if I make an error on something for I have neither educational background nor the knowledge to enlighten you about some of the main themes of this book. I know there is much controversy surrounding this book. If I say something in error, remember that I am no expert and for this reason there are some parts in the book that are important that I will not touch on. Thank you.
We jump in at the beginning of the book to every parent’s worst nightmare. When I heard about what was taking place in this part of the book I really didn’t care to read it. I stay away from scary movies because I don’t like this type of thing. The author foreshadows a couple times what is coming with Missy. He describes the talk about the Indian princess who sacrificed herself and when Mack consciously is making a memory to remember her like she is at those precious last moments he has with her (unknown to him). We can tell that something bad is coming. What happens to their family is horrific and I could not imagine going through it. If you are reading this and you have lost a child, I am sorry. I pray you allow God to wrap his loving arms around you and comfort you in your time of grief.
Back to Mack and his trip to the shack, what would you do if confronted with a note from God? I wonder what I would do if I were confronted with the same situation. If God sent me a note would I believe it? Right now at the point I am in life I would probably tell someone. I don’t think I would keep it to myself; I would need to go get some wisdom from my pastor or assistant pastor to decide what to do. I just think it makes it interesting when you think about what you might do. I found a question online on several websites but I’m not sure where it originated. “Why do you think Mack's encounter with God took place at the shack? If God were to invite you somewhere, where would it be? (In other words, where is the center of your doubt and pain)?” The second question is not for you to answer online but just for personal reflection. I think God brought Mack to the shack because maybe he knew that no where else would pull Mack in like that place with the significance it had for him. Logically if you picked other scenarios like the park or the falls, it just doesn’t fit. The shack is secluded and right in the middle of God’s creation and Mack’s great sadness. This is where Mack needs to be to let the healing begin from the loss of his daughter and the loss of his relationship with his Heavenly Father.
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Do you know that my fear of having a child and losing him/her is one of the reasons that I have contemplated never having children? I also have a crazy fear that I will have a medically fragile child, or a child with autism, or Down Syndrome - or whatever (blame that one on my job). I think that if it hurts me this much to even THINK about losing a child, the pain that people acutally go through is unbearable. But, it happens. I have a friend who lost her 8 month old son last year to a heart defect. I read her blog and can hear so much pain left within her family. Even as they have allowed God to give them comfort and they have used this to reach out to so many others, the pain doesn't seem to go away. My friend is a ultrasound tech and she had to go back to her "shack" - seeing babies and babies with birth defects. She's used this as a witnessing and therapy tool.
I think that when God wants to move us, He will put us in a place where we will be the most vulnerable. A place that's so significant, that there is no way for us to miss what He is trying to do with us. Like in Same Kind of Different As Me, when God used the sorrow that everyone was feeling with Debbie's illness to speak and say: I am HERE. I will comfort you and give you PEACE. The Shack is the last place that Mack saw Missy smile, laugh, and play. It is also the place that Mack lost his faith in God. Of course God would invite him back to this place to show to him that in this place where he feels so much pain, so much anger, so much hopelessness, God is there too. God is with us in every place, every step, every breath. When Mack feels the PEACE that occurs when God enters this awful, awful place he cannot question His presence.
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