Mystery Book...

I love getting emails from readers, and sometimes they are just too good to keep to myself. I received this one today from someone who mysteriously stumbled upon The Paper Bag Christmas...

Hi Mr. Milne!

My name is [name withheld], and I live in a small town in the hill country in Texas. Last night God gave me your book, The Paper Bag Christmas. Okay, well, maybe not God... but someone did. I live with two other people and it belonged to none of us, we'd never seen it before, but there it was, just sitting on our bookshelf. I am a firm believer in the magic and love of Christmas-time, so I decided to read it. I finished it all in one sitting, and don't know that I've ever cried so hard in a book.

My nephew passed away from cancer in a children's hospital 5 years ago, and it was by far the hardest thing to endure to date. I was incredibly moved by the story and how much love was shown on every single page. I'm a big time crier, so there was no chance of a dry eye of course, but in a good way!

I currently work with at-risk kids as a counselor, having only gotten my Bachelor's in Psychology a year and a half ago. I am not sure why this book appeared on my bookshelf for me to read, but I thank you for writing it, and inspiring me to try my hardest to love everyone and reach out to everyone I can, including the children I work with. I can't wait to go to church this week and thank God for putting it on my shelf, too. I try not to think about my nephew too much, but this book made me, and made me feel some sort of peace. I didn't know what to do so I decided to write you this e-mail in hopes of a response and your take on this strange Christmas story!