I'm reading a book called The Shack. Ive seen others talk about it on blogs and reviews. They all say its life changing. Yea, yea, yea. Ive seen that too on other books and they didn't do that. But this one.....oh yea......this one will. It will change how you look at life, yourself, religion and God.
Its set in Oregon. A man takes his family camping and the youngest daughter gets abducted by a serial killer. They never find her body but just a blood soaked dress at the shack. The family of course is devastated but this is the story of the father (yup THE father and the dad). He ends up several yrs later going back to the site where they believe it happened. Now this is where it gets weird...he gets an invite in his mail on a day when no mail was delivered, due to bad weather. Hes invited back to the shack by Papa. ......his wife's name for God. Yes its absurd and he thought so too but his curiosity takes him there.
If you are a die hard Christian who sees God and the Bible and church and all those things only ONE way......you wont get this. You will be so rigid in your thinking you will think this is absurd, insane and irreverent. Push on tho......everyone who picks it up.......push on..........you will never look at any of this the same ever again. I'm only half way thru and my eyes have opened so much already. My mind is reeling with how about this ....or how about that.......and then just with what Ive read, I get it. I cant wait to finish this and most likely will today. Its not a thick book, its an ez read that Ive been picking up in between other things. But I really want to just sit down and finish it now that I'm in the middle. We are Love.......we are God.........God is Love. You have heard it before......now you will understand it.
From the book:
Spirit says "Relationships are never about power, and one way to avoid the will to hold power over another is to choose to limit oneself (your own power) -- to serve." {pg. 108}
And to spook you a bit to see how absurd the story is....
An soon as he had put them down for Sarayu (spirit) to wash, Jesus tossed him a dish towel and they both began drying. {pg. 110}
There are three
Father, Son and Spirit.
And then there's me
And I am God.
Son is God made human
He is still God
He is just man
and he is me.
Spirit is creation
God is creation
And human can create,
I am God.
And Father is all
Love, the word,
human, creation.
And I am all.
In him
Thru him
With him.
We are God.
seanymph2009
I was watching tv and stumbled upon a quilting program on one of those PBS channels. I love that they have different things than regular tv. I am also a quilter and am fascinated by women who have such a talent. I'm just a beginner. The quilters in this show were artists........textile artists and I was just green with envy.
There was even one man that used to paint but decided he liked to paint with threads much better. He said sadly his muse seems to get him up at 3am. lol. But he starts with an idea then embellishes it with threads. Part of it was because in the beginning he felt his stitches were not good and it was a way to cover up mistakes but in time he found it was HIS thing. I was amazed looking at that. He would paint with threads some thick to texturize an object or just tons of rows of zigzaging to fill in an area. But his quilts were very different and rather interesting.
Another woman took fabrics...she was amazed at folks who make squares and have to piece it all. She felt those people were the true artists and yet if you saw her creations you wouldn't think that. Hers were fabrics encrusted with beads, buttons, ribbon flowers, yoyos and laces. She said there are folks who keep all the beads separate...red in one jar, blue in another, etc. She liked to keep some of the colors she was working with all together and then once in awhile throw in a different color for texture or surprise. I love her idea of embellishing a fabric that way. She said her quilts tho would be too heavy to use...the buttons and such plus you cant just throw them in the wash. But it was beautiful art and another way to create. I want to make a mermaid quilt one day and have been collecting some fabrics and beads and things in the hopes to maybe make it like a Victorian crazy quilt. After seeing hers tho I'm inspired more.
But a vision of God popped into my head while watching this show. After all it was about creation, mans creations. But can you imagine long ago........God creating? I had this visual of him sitting there with his feet up sipping a coffee and thinking ...I'm bored and I want company, what can I do .....then letting his imagination run wild. And we all see how that came out. But imagine a blank canvas.......the black sky, an open dark void, endless. I can see God stand up and with a wave of his arm........sprinkle the sky with objects, some planets, some stars. He would then stand back and look at it.....tweaking it here and there till he deemed it perfect. 
The man who made those thread quilts said he would get lost in his creations then have to come back to reality. I imagine God had to also. Or perhaps he was just tired and decided to go back to sipping his coffee, relaxing and gazing at his lovely creation. But then then next day he would look at the vast expanse of stars and say.....that was fun.....I want to do more. So he focuses on a planet.....perhaps earth. Well its very dark still so he makes light......and the planet appears but looks so sad and barren. So he creates land and water and sky......oh wow....look at that. Then after spending endless time creating goes back to rest, his muse spent for the moment.
And so he rests and his mind doesn't as he starts to think of all kinds of things to put on this planet. And he gets up in the middle of his nite, creation of all kinds of things running thru his head.......he waves his arms once again and POOF!! mountains,,,,,oceans ,,,green trees, grasses .....and maybe he sneezes while doing that and some beautiful rainbow appears............and he loves the colors in it! Says wow, I really like that!!! And waves his arms more and beautiful flowers appear......blue, red, pink................oh yes and yellow.....orange too. Oh look how beautiful it all is!!! And God marvels at his own creativity.
Finally worn out he naps. When he wakes up he sits down once again with his coffee, enjoying such beauty. But hes sad.....he thinks I'm the only one who sees this. And so he thinks hard and says I will make creatures. Yes that's it, creatures to roam the earth to enjoy all Ive created. And so once again the muse hits him and he waves his arms and creates animals, and fish and birds........filling the water, earth and sky . And makes some of them colorful like the rainbow and the flowers. God has created this beautiful Eden.......from far away it looks like a quilt, pieced and made with love.
And for awhile God is happy. Its all so amazing. But like most artists once you make one thing.....your muse is onto another thing. You never rest...the muse is your life. God took all the colors and made a huge patchwork of beauty but he realized still no one else can enjoy it. True he made animals but they didn't have the capacity to see it like God did. They loved his flowers and grasses and ate them. Or swam in the waters or flew in the sky but they didn't have the realization of what it really was.
Finally God knew what he had to do........he had to make something that could see what he saw and so he made man. And he made man with the same things inside of God himself. He made man able to see the beauty and use it and love it. Over time that itself was enough. But man cannot wander aimlessly......and so ......God decided to let man create. He sat back and watched. While many have created bad things.....so many have created good. And so artists who quilt or paint or patch things together to make beauty or anyone for that matter.....becomes a part of God. Our maker...gave us the muse to make.
Now I imagine God up there........much older perhaps altho time they say is irrelevant where He is .....sitting there looking at the other planets ..and creating more elsewhere. Far enough apart so we might not see the other and copy. Each creation unique. And I do believe he gets such joy from seeing what we all come up with.
I'm reading a book called The Shack. Ive seen others talk about it on blogs and reviews. They all say its life changing. Yea, yea, yea. Ive seen that too on other books and they didn't do that. But this one.....oh yea......this one will. It will change how you look at life, yourself, religion and God.
