Go ahead, take a big breath. That’s what this chapter is in the book. It’s a chance to take a breath. Going from gut twisting narrative, to mystery, to heady conversation with God, this chapter is a bit of a break. There’s plenty to say, but the pace slows down a bit.
One of the intriguing pieces is God in relationship, the Trinity together. You see them working on dinner together, laughing together, serving each other. The book makes a point that relationships are about service as opposed to trying to exert power over one another (p.106). In fact service is often one of the most profound expressions of who one is. Think about Jesus and his willingness to serve all the way to the cross. It continues to amaze me that we have a God willing to serve us, his people.
The other piece that I found most interesting is the conversation with Jesus on the dock about his humanity. Young does a good job of making Jesus real. He laughs a lot. He’s personable. He’s even described with a big nose and sticky fingers. I like how real Jesus becomes here. Yes, I’m sure Jesus was a powerful orator, but I’m sure his personality was compelling for more reasons than that. Part of it had to be that people could sense the power of the godhead present, but were amazed that they could relate to him, talk to him, and in a sense even understand him. This is one of the many examples of how Young does a great job of making God very real and accessible to our thoughts, of fleshing out what it might be like to meet with Jesus.
What do you think of the characterization of Jesus? Does anything bother you here? One thing I did notice was his little dig at family devotions (p.107). This is another one of those points where there’s some truth here. To many family devotions may have been like this, but my feeling here is that this seems to be a little of the author’s own baggage coming up again, in one of those expressions of lashing out at anything that smacks of traditional faith. I guess I enjoyed family devotions and still do, even time just reading old Bible stories. Any reactions there or am I being overly sensitive?
h
Tags: book, devotions, faith, god, jesus, The Shack, trinity, truth