The Wish Book Christmas

 

If a book comes up with the name Lynn Austin on it, I am jumping at the chance to read it. The Wish Book Christmas fulfills every expectation for a Lynn Austin book.  There's mercy, love, forgiveness, blessings, and grace to be mined through this short novel.  And there's nostalgia. 

The Wish Book came every fall to our house, in fact, we had two wish books at least come to us:  J C Penney and Sears and Roebuck.  My mom set a budget to spend for us for Christmas and birthdays, and then filled in extras with S & H Green Stamps, Gold Bond Stamps, and Wonder Market Stamps.  She saved the stamps all year long and then redeemed them for gifts for all of us.  

Audrey and Eve live in the same house with their two sons, who are the same age.  The boys find the Wish Book and begin wishing for everything in the book that appeals to toys.  Their greed for things is overwhelming to the boys' mothers who want to teach them that it is more blessed to give than to receive.  

Audrey and Eve were first introduced in the book, If I Were You, where Audrey finds out that Eve has been impersonating her for four years.  In that book, Eve finds forgiveness and salvation; and Tom.  In this book, Audrey and Eve find that God longs to be gracious to them and to bless them beyond all they could ask or imagine, but they have to accept what God wants to do for them.  At the same time, they have to teach their sons what truly loving is all about.  

This book is a quick read, but don't let its brevity fool you into thinking there's not much substance in it.  There are a lot of deep spiritual concepts to be mined from this book if the reader takes the time to dig for them.  Pride and greed are two of the most battled concepts in this book, but there are others as well. Mrs. Herder has steeped herself into mourning the loss of her son during the war that ended six years prior has to come to realize that her love for her son didn't die when he did, and that it is no disrespect to him that she continues living.  In coming to that conclusion, she teaches Audrey the same thing, that Audrey's love for her husband didn't die when he did, but it is no disrespect to him that she continue living.  

This is a five star book with two thumbs up and a favorite toy in the Christmas Wish Book. 

Tyndale House and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are solely my own.