Steph Dunn- Outside Reading # 3 The Shack

Last semester I started reading the popular book "The Shack" by William P. Young. My good friend Lindsay has read it, and she told me of the impact it had on her relationship with the Lord. I knew I wanted to see for myself what this book had to offer. The first chapter hit me hard, and I knew this book was going to be great.
It is about this man who has a good life. He is married and has three children. One weekend they go camping with neighbors and something tragic happens. They are distracted by the capsizing of a canoe by their other children when they find out their youngest daughter Missy is gone. It turns out she was taken by who they call the "little lady killer" who is known to brutally kill little girls.
Mack and the rest of the family are absolutely devastated as any family that loses a child would be. Mack sinks into what is called "the great sadness" and is blaming himself for what happened to Missy. He is also blaming God for letting something like this happen to his beloved daughter Missy.
One day Mack gets a letter in the mail from Papa and he wants Mack to meet him at the shack. This is consequently the place where they found Missy's red dress she was wearing that day, they think he took her their before he buried her.
Mack is curious and goes to the shack hoping to find some answers. When he gets there he realizes that he was right, the letter was from God. He gets the chance to meet God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost. Mack's bitterness is brought to the surface for him to work through it. He time is amazing at the shack. He gets the opportunity that many of us wish we could have to interact physically with the holy trinity. Mack gets to know the heart of Christ, the love of God and the mystery of the spirit. He comes to terms with why Missy was taken from him and gets to work through things that happened to him in his past. Mack also gets to see Missy He sees that she is happy and he finally understands why she had to die.
This book really hit hard for me. I gives such an amazing perspective on death and insight into God's love and plan. It is so easy to write of what God does as mean and insensitive, but this book showed me how perfect his plan actually is. I recommend this book for anyone who has experienced hardship in their lives and is struggling trying to understand God's plan through tragedy.