In The Belly of The Beasts – Chapter Twelve

A realization hits Mack, the Great Sadness is gone.  He walks up to Jesus and they talk over his past, his present, and what his future might look like.  The conversation continues on into the rash judgments that Mack has made concerning a number of issues that we all struggle with -  Jesus lovingly corrects and explains His Truth to Mack.

Chapter 11 – Here Come Da Judge

Jesus directs Mack to a cave like entrance, which Mack unsteadily enters into. He comes to a chair sitting in the middle of an open space which he sits in, waiting for something to happen. As he did this, a beautiful Latina woman appears.

She begins a barrage of questioning that intentionally lead Mack down a path of his judgment. She asks him of repentance and then informs him that he will be the judge of God and the human race. She peels back the layers of Mack with a brutal honesty until Mack finally confesses that He’s angry at God.

The questioning goes on until the woman asks Mack to choose 3 of his children to go to hell and the other 2 to go to heaven. He screams at the woman that he can’t, he won’t make that choice. He offers himself in their place. The woman smiles and says, “Now you sound like Jesus.”

The woman continues on, teaching Mack about God, attempting to clean up his confusion about the sameness of God and Jesus. It is then that Mack sees his children together – all of his children playing with Jesus.

The woman pulls him back from the vision (for lack of a better word) and says, “Judgment is not about destruction, but about setting things right.”

Chapter 10 – Wade in the Water

Jesus finished off building a casket then He and Mack take a walk to the dock.  Their conversation opens up what Mack’s fears truly are.

(Sorry this one is so simplistic… writing much more gives away the whole chapter)

Chapter Nine—A Long Time Ago, in a Garden Far, Far Away

Sarayu (the Holy Spirit) shows Mack a messy, fractal garden. The garden is full of colors, herbs, flowers, plants. Mack describes it as a “chaos in color”…”confusing, stunning, and incredibly beautiful.” As they walk, Sarayu picks various herbs and plants and flowers, giving them to Mack and creating a bouquet.

She then gives Mack some garden tools and leads him to a secluded patch of absolute beauty—breathtaking. She asks for his help in clearing the patch because she wants to plant something else here instead. Stunned at her request to destroy something so beautiful, he joins her in clear-cutting the beautiful patch of garden. Their conversation turns to the topic of Good and Evil where Sarayu makes the comment, “You humans, so little in your own eyes. You are truly blind to your own place in the Creation. Having chosen the ravaged path of independenc, you don’t even comprehend that you are dragging the entire Creation along with you.” She also states that “humans have a great capacity for declaring something good or evil, without truly knowing.” She begins to question Mack about his ability to really know what is good for him or what is evil. He says a lot of it is based on how something or someone effects him…that somethings he thought were good turned out to be bad, and visa-versa. They continue to work and dialogue together.

Sarayu tells Mack that Evil is simply the absence of God, much like Darkness is simply the absence of Light, and Death, the absence of Life. That Evil and Darkness can only be understood in relation to Light and Good..that they do not actually have any existence. Light and Good actually exist. So by Mack removing himself from God plunges him into darkness. That is death because he has separated himself from God: Life.

The conversation turns towards Mack daughter, Missy, and he asks if she had the right to be protected. Sarayu says, “No Mack. A child is protected because she is loved, not because she has a right to be protected.” This floors Mack. She continues, “Rights are where survivors go, so they don’t have to work out relationships…” that “Jesus didn’t hold on to any rights; he willingly became a servant and lives out of his relationship with Papa. He gave up everything, so that by his dependent life he opened a door that would allow you to live free enough to give up your rights.”

Papa then arrives. Mack says how, though the garden is a mess, he somehow feels strangely comfortable in it. Papa and Sarayu smile at each other. Sarayu says, “And well you should, Mackenzie, because this garden is your soul—this mess is you! Together, you and I, we have been working with a purpose in your heart. And its wild and beautiful and perfectly in process. To you it seems messy, but to me, I see a perfect pattern emerging and growing and alive—a living fractal.” Mack crumbled. He looked at his garden and it really was a mess, but incredible and wonderful at the same time.

The chapter ends with Mack walking up to the workshop to look for Jesus so they can go for a walk…

Chapter Eight – A breakfast of champions

This chapter opens with Mac dreaming.  When he awakes he isn’t sure where he is… and then he remembers that he’s hanging with the Trinity.

They all sit and eat breakfast together, teaching Mac through conversation and actions just who they are and where he stands in relation to them (Him).   They speak of man’s desire for power and control, of his lack of trust in their love for him, therefor their lack of relationship with him.

Chapter ends with Sarayu inviting Mac to work in the garden.  Mac agrees.

Chapter Seven: God on the Dock

After enjoying an intimate dinner playfully made by the God-Trinity, Mack and Jesus head out to lay on the dock to stargaze and talk alone.  As they talk, the conversation shifts towards Jesus’ humanity and down-to-earthness, yet being fully God at the same time.  As their night together ends, The Great Darkness invades Mack again, but Jesus reminds him that he is with him and not lost.

Chapter Six – A Piece of Pie

This chapter is where Mack gets to start chatting with God. 

He spends most of the time with God the Father, discussing some of his preconcieved notions of what God might look like, act like, be like. 

He also learns that “This weekend is about relationship and love.”

The Gender of God

Okay I want to address what is an obvious point in the book.  Both God and the Holy Spirit show up as women.  I actually liked this idea.  Mack wasn’t ready to see God as a Father so God chose to reveal himself as a motherly figure.  In doing so he blows up some stereotypes that we have that God is masculine.

And this construct helped me realize that the way God reveals Himself in Scripture, as a Father, has more to do with role and perception than gender.   He reveals a limited construct for the sake of me, not because that is what He is.  But it also helped me realize that God is much bigger than I give him credit for.

Chapter Five ~ Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner

Mack decides to go to the Shack. He intentionally hides this from his wife but his friend Willy finds out. Mack heads up to the shack and upon entering he explodes in anger at God.

He tries leaving but as he walks to Willy’s jeep, the world around him transforms into a perfect summer vacation spot. Mack questions his sanity but cannot deny the realness of what the Shack has become. Pushing through his unbelief, he goes to the front door and wonders what he ought to say to God when God answers the it.

The door swings open before he has the opportunity and there Mack is, faced with God Himself. He then gets introduced to the Son and the Holy Spirit. The emotions at that point were so powerful that Mack allows himself to believe. He has just met the trinity.

Chapter Four – The Great Sadness.

After Mack recovers from rescuing his older children from a canoe mishap, he realises his youngest daughter is missing.  He tries to remain calm for a while, but as time wears on, he becomes more anxious – as first friends, and then the whole campground become involved. 

Eventually a couple of young guys bring forth some information – they spotted a little girl in an old, military green truck leaving the campsite.  He remembers seeing the driver shove the girl down on the seat, but thought maybe they were just playing.  At this news, the sheriff is contacted, and road blocks get put in place. 

The search team takes Mack back to the camp site, where Missy was last seen; to determine if anything is other than Mack remembers.  There are signs of a struggle over by a tree, where Missy’s shoe and a red crayon are laying.  And there is a ladybug pin on her coloring book.  The pin proves to be significant to the FBI agent on the case - Special Agent  Wikowsky.  She says that, based on the five spots on the ladybug, this is the Little Ladykiller’s fifth murder.  He tends to spot his targets a few days in advance, and waits for an opportunity to take them.  The girls are always taken from campsites, the killer seems to be an excellent woodsman, and the bodies are never recovered. 

With this information, Mack loses it – and he contemplates the death of his daughter, the horror of it, and how he will possibly tell his wife.  He wonders how this could have happened.

At five pm a promising report comes in from a roadblock – the vehicle has been spotted, and the various search teams set out.  A tracker flashed a floodlight off a hubcap, barely visible on an old unnamed road, that was almost impossible to see.  At the end of the road was a cabin.  Mack is called in, to identify little Missy’s ripped and bloody red dress, laying next to the fire place. 

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The next few weeks are full of interviews, and the Great Sadness settles over the family.  Mack and his wife Nan do well together, and are in some ways closer for the tragedy.  She has not blamed Mack for their loss.  Mack struggles with “If onlys”.  It is three and a half years later, and there is a rift in Mack’s relationship with God that he is trying to ignore.  So the note is of monumental importance.  He wonders if God writes notes, and if so, why does He want Mack to go to the cabin?  He feels toyed with, but realising he needs answers, determines to go to the cabin and find out what is going on….