Last night a few of us girls had our Wine and Cheese get together to talk about the book "The Shack" that I have posted a couple of times about. It was fun, and I think we all benefited from being able to discuss and process a few ideas...because the book is full of them and it is easy to just read it and move on without really considering the heart - and truth in our own lives - behind it.
All in all, we all really liked it. We thought it was a great depiction of the character and the nature of who God is. I don't want to give the whole book away, but I will say that we all thought it was pretty cool that way that God chose to reveal Himself to Mack (as this great black woman who is full of love and delights over all her children). It reminded us of Gen 1: 27 "So God created man in His own image. In the image of God He created him; male and female He created them..." God is outside of gender, He is both true masculinity and true femininity! So why do we always say "He", or why does He so often present Himself to us as a Father? Here is a quote to think about from the book "Well" responded Papa turning away from him and bustling around the kitchen, "there are many reasons for that, and some of them go very deep. Let me say for now that we knew once the Creation was broken, true fathering would be much more lacking than mothering. Don't misunderstand me, both are needed - but an emphasis on fathering is necessary because of the enormity of its absence."(emphasis mine pg 94).
The book is FULL of applicable truths for our lives! Someone commented that in an interview Young said this is a fiction, a metaphor of the love of God...however I think that it is a metaphor of truth. In the Acknowledgments : "[Wayne] and Brad bore the lion's share of work in the three major rewrites that brought this story to its final form, adding their insights into the ways in which God works and keeping the story true to Mack's pain and his healing." (emphasis mine).
If you read it, apply it to your own life, because it is a beautiful picture of what God wants to do for each of His children..."The thief does not come except to steal, to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly" John 10:10
Yesterday I picked up a new book from the library "Home: A memoir of my early years" by Julie Andrews. For this next month, we might try a new thing...if you are here and want to get together with us sometime late November, early December, read any biography you are interested in (it could also be this one if you'd like!), and we'll have another ladies night to share about the person we chose :) Contact me to let me know you are in!
Have a great weekend!
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