Father's House Blog

    Every so often a book is published that has what Malcolm Gladwell famously called a ‘tipping point’ – the point where something becomes so contagious it becomes an epidemic. William Young’s novel The Shack is just such a book and what’s interesting about it is that it is a Christian novel, and Christian novels are not known for having tipping points. Well this one has! It has taken the USA reading public by storm and is now in the top ten of the USA Today charts. It is also proving a hit in the UK too and has gone through numerous re-printings. Talk of a movie is in the air and the author is now in big demand for interviews.

      So what’s it all about?  The story concerns a man called Mack Phillips. Four years before the opening of the book his young daughter Missy is abducted and murdered by a serial killer who targets young girls. The killing takes place in a remote shack. Since that time Mack has been existing rather than living, trying to get on while consumed by what he calls ‘the Great Sadness’.

      One day Mack receives a note inviting him to return to the shack. The note is signed by ‘Papa’. ‘Papa’ is the special term that Mack’s wife Nan uses for God. As the narrator tells us: “Papa was Nan’s favourite name for God and it expressed her delight in the intimate friendship she had with him” (p.22). Mack lacks this understanding and experience of God the Father. Having had an alcoholic dad, the word ‘father’ or ‘papa’ is not one Mack can easily use in addressing God. Such words have a deep seated, negative resonance for him and so he has never entered into the intimate communion with God that is available to him. That experience awaits him.

      The Shack is about many things, not least the perennial question about why a loving God can allow evil in the world. But the main focus of the novel is not so much God’s character as Mack’s, and in particular his growing discovery of God as his loving, affectionate, trust worthy Papa. In fact, the whole novel is really a celebration of the Father heart of God in story form. It is a gripping tale of one man’s journey into the Father’s embrace – a journey that will bring him healing not only from the trauma of his daughter’s death, but healing from the deep scars of his own relationship with his father.

      I won’t ruin the rest of the story for you. I will just say that the key to Mack’s healing comes as a result of accepting Papa’s invitation and returning to the shack. There he meets three people who are human representations of the Trinity. Interestingly, God the Father appears to Mack in the form of an African American woman. Now this has caused some controversy, of course. But I loved it! For many men in particular, the idea of ‘mother’ is much more positive than the idea of ‘father’. It is therefore entirely fitting and convincing that God the Father should choose to reveal the maternal aspects of his nature before introducing himself as Father. For Mack as for many readers this is totally plausible.

      It is the interaction between Mack and Papa God that brings Mack’s deep father wounds to light. The following interchange between Mack and Papa God (who at this point is still appearing as an African American woman), says it all. Mack is speaking first:

      “You must know”, he offered, “calling you Papa is a bit of a stretch for me.”

      “Oh really?” She looked at him in mock surprise.  “Of course I know.  I always know”. “She chuckled. “But tell me, why do you think it’s hard for you? Is it because it’s too familiar for you, or maybe because I am showing myself as a woman, a mother, or…”

      “No small issue there,” Mack interrupted with an awkward chuckle.

      “Or, maybe it’s because of the failures of your own papa?”

      Mack gasped involuntarily.  He wasn’t used to having deep secrets surface so quickly and openly.  Instantly guilt and anger welled up and he wanted to lash out with a sarcastic remark in response.  Mack felt as if he were dangling over a bottomless chasm and was afraid if he let any of it out, he would lose control of everything.  He sought for a safe footing, but was only partially successful, finally answering though gritted teeth, “Maybe it’s because I’ve never known anyone I could really call Papa.”

      At that she put down the mixing bowl that had been cradled in her arm and, leaving the wooden spoon it, she turned toward Mack with tender eyes.  She didn’t have to say it; he knew she understood what was going on inside of him, and somehow he knew she cared about him more than anyone ever had.  “If you let me, Mack I’ll be the Papa you never had.”

      (The Shack pp.91-92)

      This passage is a good one to look at for several reasons. First of all, it highlights the importance of the healing of Mack’s father wounds in the development of the plot. This is one of the central themes of the book and we need to grasp that this is the author’s purpose - to describe one man’s experience of the revelation of the Father heart of God.

      Secondly, it also showcases some of the problems with the style of the storytelling. In truth, while the content of the story is nearly always engaging, the form of the storytelling sometimes falters. Occasionally the prose is overburdened with too much explanation. Too much is said, sometimes by God, sometimes by the narrator.

      That said, The Shack ends with a stunning reconciliation between Mack and his earthly father, and here the storytelling is at its very best, straining beyond prose to poetry:

      “Daddy!” yelled Mack, and threw himself onto the man who could not even look at his son.  In the howl of wind and flame, Mack took his father’s face in his two hands, forcing his dad to look at him in the face so that he could stammer the words he had always wanted to say: “Daddy, I’m so sorry! Daddy I love you!” The light in his words seemed to blast darkness out of his father’s colours, turning them blood red.  They exchanged sobbing words of confession and forgiveness, as a love greater than either one of them healed them. 

      Finally, they were able to stand together, a father holding his son as he had never been able to before.  It was then that Mack noticed the swell of a song that washed over them both, as it penetrated the holy place where he stood with his father.  With arms around each other they listened, unable to speak through the tears, to the song of reconciliation that lit the night sky.  An arching fountain of brilliant colour began among the children, especially those who had suffered the greatest, and then rippled as if passed from one to the next by the wind, until the entire field was flooded with light and song. 

      (The Shack, p.216)

      Beneath the ‘Great Sadness’ of his daughter’s death, there has always been a deeper sadness still, the sadness of an orphan heart – a heart that has never truly known the unconditional, affectionate love of a good dad. That sadness is healed at the moment described above, when the heart of the son is turned towards the father and the heart of the father is turned towards the son (Malachi 4.6). This epiphany not only brings about a deep healing between Mack and his earthly father. It also brings a new freedom in his relationship with his Heavenly Father. Now God the Father appears to Mack in male form. “Forgiving your dad yesterday was a significant part of your being able to know me as Father today (p.221)”, he says. And with that, the novel moves towards its resolution and closure.

       So there it is – The Shack, a very moving exploration of the Father heart of God in story form. It is by no means a perfect book. The style is far from flawless as I have already pointed out. And there are some interesting questions to be asked about the author’s understanding of the Trinity, the Cross, the Bible, church and so on.

      At the same time, I cannot remember being so moved by a novel. I read it in two sittings, on two plane journeys to and from a conference where I was teaching on the Father Heart of God in Norway. On the way back, I wept several times as Mack pushed in to the place of freedom in the Father’s love. I for one am extremely grateful that William Young wrote this novel, and I have emailed him to tell him so!

      May this be the first of many new creative and artistic representations of Papa God. The church and the world need stories that portray the Love of all Loves.