Rebekah Cook - The Shack

Before seeing the The Shack I didn’t know much about the movie at all and actually wanted to keep it that way so I could have an open mind while watching the film.  Only hearing that it was very sad, which it was, I found that I really enjoyed the story.  First, just some elements in the film that I really liked included how the trinity was portrayed.  Many Christian movies choose a white man to represent Jesus, but historically he was from Israel.  I really liked that the The Shack chose to cast Jesus as an Israeli man.  Also in casting the Holy Spirit, a very gentle, soft-spoken woman was chosen.  I think this was also a good choice because to my knowledge, not too many other movies have casted a character to play the Holy Spirit.  Lastly, I really liked the way God was portrayed as both a woman and a man.  While some found this controversial I thought that it showed the idea of God being there in any and every situation.  In the film, it was explained that God was a woman because Mack couldn’t handle a man or father figure at that time.  When it was time for him to forgive the murderer, God transformed into a man because that is what Mack needed at that specific time.  Overall I enjoyed how each person’s personality in the trinity was portrayed as Mack’s friend. 

Secondly, I thought that the film provided an important life lesson.  In my opinion many Christian movies leave the viewer still with unanswered questions about God.  However, I feel that this film did a good job at attempting to answer probably the hardest question both religious and nonreligious people have: if God is real and all-powerful, why does evil exist?  It answered this through using the belief of God as a trinity to help Mack, the father, grieve through the tragic event of his daughter’s murder.  Each character that represented God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit had something different to offer Mack in this question he had about evil and taught him important lessons in a new light.  Eventually these lessons allowed him to not only have closure with his daughter’s death but also allowed him to forgive the murderer.  I think that while the story was meant to be a Christian story, it can also just be seen as a story which contains valuable life lessons that both religious and nonreligious can benefit from.