The Beginning of "The Shack"

I don't want to ruin this for anyone who hasn't read the book yet, so consider this your spoiler alert...

the book begins (after an intro chapter) by telling of how Mack lost his youngest daughter, she had been kidnapped while camping, and murdered, no body was ever found, just her torn bloody dress. This actually really sickened me and I wanted to stop reading right then and there, but didn't cuz I know there's good coming...

But the reality of child abduction really kinda hit me... I mean, this isn't just some fiction story, child abduction is very real in our world, where children are taken, abused - physically, possibly sexually - and killed. Just think about that little girl that was taken on her way home from school, her name is actually slipped my mind at the moment... They only just found her body... Can you imagine the agony of the family? For those of you with children, having your child abducted and murdered would be your worst nightmare! I do not have children of my own, so I can't even imagine what it must be like...

I have s very vivid imagination, and especially reading books I get very wrapped up in it. Sometimes this is good and sometimes it's not... As I was reading in the book about Missy, I could picture in my head the scene: Mack jumping in the water to save Josh and Kate; realising Missy was gone; trying to calm the fears, only to find out what had happened... I could feel Mack's anguish because I could picture what he was saying... I could picture Missy as she was being abducted, her fear, screaming for her daddy, for anybody, to help her... And I began to feel the fear, I began feeling very closed in, trapped... And I cried as I could see her in her red dress trying to fight off her abductor to no avail as he ripped off her dress... Even as I write this, I can feel the terror and pain she would've felt... I know that i'm not gonna sleep well at all tonight because of these images in my head...

And what makes it worse is that this happens in real life! This isn't just a character in a book called Missy! I just can't understand how people can hurt others like that, ESPECIALLY children!!! It breaks my heart to know that there are people in this world that get a thrill from hurting kids, it sickens me! To me, children are the most precious thing in the world...
And to think that God calls is to love even those who hurt them? How can I love someone who would take a child from their parents, beat them, rape them, kill them? I do not blame God for allowing this to happen, because I understand free will and that people make the choice to hurt, not God. What gets to me is that He wants us to love them. Personally, I'd have no problem hating them... Mind you, I would never wish for their deaths, like capital punishment (which, by the way, I am completely against, no matter what the crime), and i'm all for rehabilitation. I can hope for them, that through therapy and counselling, etc, they can change... But when it comes to loving them... I don't know...

But then I look at my own life... No, I have never kidnapped a child, nor have I harmed a child intentionally. But I've made plenty of mistakes. I have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And in God's eyes, sin is sin. There is no ranking of different sins. Whether it's killing an innocent child, or telling a little white lie, it's all sin, and it hurts God.

I don't wanna make it seem like that if you sin God doesn't like it because He has said not to... It is true that God doesn't like sin... But it's because He loves us and wants to have a relationship with us, and it hurts Him when we don't listen to what He says. He's not a God who is just waiting for us to sin so He can punish us... No, in fact it's completely opposite! He is waiting for us to repent so He can rejoice with us!

I have this amazing vision of this, can you see it??? Think of the "lost" parables: the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son. Think about how excited people were when the lost things were found! Picture the father running to the son when he came back! This is one of my favourite stories that Jesus tells, because I can see myself in the son's role (again with the active imagination lol...) I am able to look back on my life and could just about point out the time when I "left home", when I lived my life the way I wanted to, when I crashed and burned, and when I was desperate enough to come back to God, only expecting to be treated like a hired hand. And yet what I found was that God was right there waiting to rejoice with me upon my return! I was welcomed right back into the family!

I love the song "when God ran", I think it's by Phillips Craig and Dean... The words are absolutely amazing, I highly recommend searching the words on google, or even looking up the song on youtube! The chorus goes, "the only time I ever saw Him run, was when He ran to me, took me in His arms, held my head to His chest, and said 'my son's come home again,' lifted my face, wiped the tears from my eyes, and with forgiveness in His voice He said 'son, do you know I still love you?'" can we stop here for a second? Can you take a break from reading this long blog post and picture this scene in your mind? Even in this day in age, this just doesn't happen in real life! If a kid takes their inheritance and squanders it all on nothing, there's no coming back into the family! The lost son's brother holds the worldview on this situation, I can totally see why he's upset and refuses to go in to the party... But that doesn't matter... Only God and His love for us...

Coming back to my original topic... It is not an easy thing to love those I want to hate. But you know what? Christ died for them too. This is not an easy thing for me to accept, but I know that it's true.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that WHOSOEVER believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life ... Therefore, go and make disciples of ALL nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit..."