The Shack Sparknotes

As I began reading The Shack I did not think that I would enjoy reading the book. I have heard of the book before and I have heard good reviews and bad reviews about the book. After I got through the first few chapters I started to get interested and locked into book. Paul Young made me want to get a highlighter and highlight the interesting and inspirational words that he was writing. So, I did take out a highlighter and if I had a journal that I was keeping for all of the interesting things in this book my journal would be full.

The Shack is a story that parent’s would never want to realize that happened to a kid of theirs. Missy, who is the daughter of Mack, comes up missing during a camping trip on memorial weekend. She was kidnapped
Mack goes through this Great Sadness for a long time and seems that he cannot find himself out of it. Mack gets an incomprehensible invitation from a man named Papa. It is very confusing to Mack because it brings up memories of his own Papa who was very abusive. Papa does not have Mack meet him at a restaurant, or a coffee shop, but his invitation has him meeting Papa at the shack. Now after Mack reads this invitation this is getting in his head and very confusing because this is where his daughter Missy is kidnapped. Mack then starts to think that these mysterious things going on in his life cannot just be from someone that has no meaning but thinks that these signs are coming from God. Then again he thinks why God would want to bring up the things that make him hurt the most and is strong-willed to find out. Mack finally gets the courage to go to the shack to find out what this invitation is about.
He meets Papa and “Papa” introduced her as an African American women and a man that is in his thirties is introduced as Jesus. They discuss with Mack that putting all his trust in God is going to go a long way and will help him instead of hurt him as he thinks is happening. He
Jesus just wants to remind Mack that God is good and not to judge God that only God has the power to Judge.

Papa came to be known as an old man with actual white hears and a beard. He takes
Mack back to where his daughter body was but before he can be in the presence of his daughter’s body Papa asked Mack to forgive his daughter’s killer so that he can let go of the hate he has toward the killer and to prove that he can forgive. Mack carried Missy’s body and he kept saying
I forgive you over and over. Finally, Mack gets to bury his daughter and in a beautiful casket that
Jesus had made. After all of this Papa asked Mack if he would like to remain with them or if he would want to go back. Asking for some reassurance Mack asks if him staying or going back means something and Papa said that there is always a meaning to everything. Mack decides to go back home with his wife and children and will do whatever it takes to have a different life with his family. One of the theological issues that I discovered from the book is when Sarayu asks Mack to help her in the Garden. This is showing the poisonous things that come from the garden and the good and evil. I agree with this theology because Mack’s heart was being uprooted from