Do you ever wonder about what the relationship between the Father, Holy Spirit, and Jesus is like? Not the Holy Trinity we learn about in scriptures and in church, but how they relate to each other and us? I cannot say I have given much thought to what the everyday relationship is like between the Holy Trinity because I would never have known where to begin until I read The Shack by William Paul Young, a book about Paul’s friend Mackenzie Allen Phillips’ weekend with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit that is opening my eyes to the beauty and strength unconditional love brings to relationships.

  I get that it sounds unreal and maybe impossible to imagine that the Holy Trinity would invite one man to spend the weekend with them. Even Paul writes, “Whether some parts of it are actually true or not, I won’t be the judge... though I desperately want everything Mack told me to be true and most days I am right there with him...on others – when the visible world of concrete and computers seem to be the real world – I lose touch and have doubts.”

  Still I ask you to put your doubts aside and wonder what it would be like to spend a weekend with God: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Imagine cooking with the Father, dining with the Holy Trinity, and doing dishes with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. What would hiking and gazing at the stars with Jesus be like? How would it feel to garden and canoe with the Holy Spirit? What wounds would they heal if they gave you a weekend in their presence? How would you grow if you spent a weekend with the Father, the Holy Spirit and Jesus chatting about life, observing their relationship with each other, and learning about how God, the Holy Trinity, sees one relationship with you, humanity, and our planet?

  Personally, I am not sure how anyone could imagine such a weekend unless the divine makes it possible to experience. This is why I believe The Shack is about more than Mack’s struggles in life, journey in faith, and how the divine became an active part of his life. For me The Shack is a book that can help us open our own hearts to how we will heal if we can realize and grow the unconditional love we already have. 

  The relationship the Holy Trinity shares with one another that Mack describes is inspiring me to find new ways to interact with those I love and those that I only know. Reading about the relationship the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit share together and with us makes me realize that I need to grow in my ability to accept that love is unconditional. Thanks to Mack’s meeting with the divine Sophia I have no doubt that we are not here to judge others and hold each other accountable for what we see as wrong. The Shack is helping me see more clearly that we are here to learn that we are more than our individual selves.

  Our true purpose is to combine our gifts so that we may become whole. The question is how do we find the grace to put the other person first in all of our interactions? I for one am far from being able to do this. I am asking God and all who know me to help me grow in my ability to accept where I am wrong, stop fighting for how I am right, and move forward in harmony. From my friends, exploration, and belief in different faiths I know that when we connect to the one we know as God that our hearts transcend our inabilities and allow Love to lead us. From my friends that ground themselves within I know that asking God is not the answer for everyone. I thank each of them for teaching me that there is a heart within all of us that can help us grow in our ability to stop putting ourselves first, realize we are here to steward the resources of this planet, and find the strength unconditional love can gives us.