Summary
Chapter 13: A Meeting of Hearts
Mack smells something baking and finds Papa on the porch next to a tray of pastries. Papa tells Mack that the recipe for the scones came from Mack's great-great-grandmother and hints that he will be seeing her at some point. They discuss what Mack learned from his time with Sophia. Thinking about how he saw Missy through a waterfall, Mack suddenly realizes that Papa may have intended him to make a connection between his daughter and the Multnomah princess. Mack fears that this means Missy died so that he could return to God, but Papa assures him that this is not the case.
They move on to talking about how Mack has hidden behind lies because of the hurt he has experienced in his life, especially because of his abusive father, and Papa brings up the fact that Mack lied to Nan about going to the shack. Though Mack says that he hid the note and his plan from Nan so that she wouldn't be hurt, Papa prods him to acknowledge that he was afraid of having to deal with his emotions. Papa tells Mack that Nan could have experienced the wonder of meeting God at the shack herself, and that Mack would have to explain and apologize when he gets home. Mack returns to the question of whether God causes pain to bring people back to religion, and Papa reiterates that she only uses the pain people create through their independence to lead them to good. This leads them to talk about Jesus's sacrifice, with Papa explaining that Jesus's death linked God to the human race permanently. Papa and Mack end their conversation, clean up the food, and Mack heads back outside.
Chapter 14: Verbs and Other Freedoms
Mack goes to the dock alone and takes a canoe out on the lake. He paddles around for a few hours, singing songs and thinking about his daughter Kate. Suddenly, Sarayu appears in the boat, though she tells him that she was always with him. Mack asks if he will ever see Sarayu face to face like he does now after he leaves the shack, and Sarayu responds that he will have to learn to hear her thoughts in his own. They continue the talk Mack had with Papa about emotions, with Sarayu arguing that emotions stem from perceptions and can be analyzed to help one understand the truth. They also continue earlier talks about religion, with Sarayu emphasizing that religion is about being in relationship with God, not about following certain rules. When Sarayu has finished teaching Mack, she disappears again, leaving him in the boat alone.
When Mack goes back into the house, Papa, Sarayu, and Jesus have prepared dinner. Throughout the beginning of dinner, Mack watches Papa, Sarayu, and Jesus interact happily, and at one point he even becomes overwhelmed with whether people will believe him and closes his eyes to shut out what is going on. When he opens his eyes, the three are staring at him, and he decides to engage again with God by asking questions. He asks about why God loves all people, and ends up still somewhat confused after Papa gives him an answer about how God is "truly human in Jesus, but...a totally separate other in my nature" (203). When he tries to clarify what they expect from him when he leaves the shack, Sarayu is upset by the language he used, feeling he is still asking for rules, rather than relationship. As Mack continues to eat, she lectures him about the Ten Commandments not being laws to follow but instead "a mirror to reveal just how filthy your face gets when you live independently" (204). Sarayu tells Mack that she wants people to embrace verbs, not nouns, meaning they must do things rather than cling to concrete institutions. She uses the words "responsibility and expectation" (206), two words commonly used in religious institutions, and shows how people should actually "respond" (207) and live with "expectancy" (207). Sarayu, Papa, and Jesus end by emphasizing that they don't have expectations of Mack, and certainly don't want religion to give him a set of priorities, because he must give himself completely to a relationship with God.
Papa announces that it's time for dinner to end because they are going to do something special for Mack. Sarayu asks if she can heal Mack's eyes for the night, meaning he will see what God sees. He allows her to touch his eyes, and he opens them as the chapter ends.
Chapter 15: A Festival of Friends
When Mack opens his eyes, which have been healed by Sarayu, he is standing on a hill at night. There is no moon, but the stars are bright and moving slowly across the sky. Sarayu is still standing next to him, but she now seems to be made of sparkling jewels. When Mack looks around, he sees the trees and animals of the forest haloed in light of different colors; the colors follow the animals as they move and interact. Mack feels none of the pain he usually does from his joints, and when he jumps he is able to float in the air. Suddenly, a large group of children from different cultures of the world appear in the forest, radiating colorful light as well. They form a circle, and a group of adults forms a larger circle around them. They all seem to be excitedly anticipating something, and the bright flashes of light coming from one particular adult who Sarayu says must be having very strong emotions. Sarayu proceeds to tell Mack that the colors and light he sees emanating from each person is unique, and change as a person matures. Mack notices that another circle has formed outside of the ring of adults, which Sarayu informs him is made up of angels. Sarayu and Mack discuss the fact that not only are the colors of each person unique, but the relationships they have with others have unique colors, smells, and tastes as well.
They turn their attention back to the person in the circle having trouble controlling his emotions, and Sarayu reveals to Mack that it is Mack's father. Mack is consumed by a mix of emotions, and he runs across the meadow to his father. They hug and cry, and Mack tells his father that he loves him. The colors coming off of Mack's father lighten, and the people in the meadow start to sing and create a fountain of colorful light. Mack goes back to Sarayu on the hill, and he hugs her while he continues to cry. The meadow goes quiet, and Jesus emerges. Jesus looks to Mack and tells him, "Mack, I am especially fond of you" (218), and then he tells the people of the meadow to come to him and blesses each in turn. Mack's vision returns to normal as he, Jesus, and Sarayu walk back to the shack.
Analysis
The epigraph of Chapter 13 is a quote from Jean-Jacques Rousseau, "Falsehood has an infinity of combinations, but truth has only one mode of being" (185). This sets up the theme of an important chapter in the book, where Mack and Papa discuss Mack's lies, especially the lie he told himself about why he didn't tell Nan about the note asking to meet at the shack. Like the quote says, while there were many different reasons Mack could come up with to not invite Nan, there was only one truth, which is that he was scared to face his own emotions around religion and Missy's death.
Chapter 14, Verbs and Other Freedoms, has a very short epigraph: "God is a verb" (196). Though brief, this quote, attributed to Buckminster Fuller, is very important to the chapter. In Chapter 14, while Mack is having dinner with Sarayu, Papa, and Jesus, Sarayu launches into a long speech about how humans misconstrue religion by living by nouns rather than verbs. This is a difficult concept for Mack to understand, and Sarayu uses the words "responsibility and expectation" (206-7) as examples. These words imply that humans have certain duties, while the words "respond" (207) and "expectation" (207) leave room for humans to think and act critically and be in active relationship with God and one another.
Chapter 15 starts with a fairly long quote from writer and theologian Frederick Buechner's Telling the Truth: The Gospel As Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale. In short, the quote says that a person will always carry their family and friends with them. This quote occurs at the beginning of Chapter 15 because in the chapter Mack is reunited with his father. Mack has left his father behind him in some ways, but still carries trauma from his father's abuse and his own actions toward his father before leaving home. This quote's positive tone reassures the reader that Mack is ready for the encounter, and indeed the reader sees that Mack and his father are able to embrace and forgive one another. It is interesting to note that the quote specifies that one will keep their family and friends in "your heart, your mind, your stomach" (211); the addition of stomach contributes to a motif of food and fullness throughout the book.
Mack's choice to go out in a canoe when given some free time to spend alone is a small sign of how far he has come emotionally. Canoes became an emotionally triggering object for Mack after saving Kate and Josh after they fell out of their canoe allowed the Little Ladykiller to kidnap Missy. On the morning of Mack's second day at the shack, when Mack sees the canoes, "the three canoes resting easily at intervals along the dock looked inviting, but Mack shrugged off the thought. Canoes were no longer a joy. Too many bad memories" (119). This shows how, even after a few years, Mack has not recovered from his grief enough to return to the things he once enjoyed. Now, in Chapter 14, Mack has shaken off The Great Sadness and can resume taking pleasure in things related to Missy's life, like canoeing. Young writes, "He knew it would probably forever be bittersweet, but the thought of taking one out on the lake energized him for the first time in years" (196). As Mack learns later in Chapter 16, one can forgive but not forget.
Eyes are an important motif in this section of the book. Eyes are shown to represent connection to the world, and blocking or enhancing vision represents allowing oneself less or more engagement with others. First, when Mack is at dinner with Sarayu, Papa, and Jesus, he starts to get overwhelmed by the fantastical nature of his situation; he closes his eyes to remove himself from the situation. However, God does not let him close his eyes; Papa, Sarayu, and Jesus stare at him, showing him that his attempt to disappear has been noticed and is not tolerated, though they still welcome him with "silly grins" (202) when he opens his eyes again. Later, in this section, there is a parallel moment of closing and opening eyes. Sarayu offers to heal Mack's eyes so that he sees like God, and this requires him to close his eyes. This time, when he opens his eyes he can see in a very different way than normal, witnessing colorful light coming from people that represents their personalities and relationships. Therefore, sight represents engagement and understanding.
