To the Person Who Stole the Netflix Video Right Out of My Mailbox,

Surely, you know who you are. Maybe after you stole my mail, you did a quick Internet search and found us here. I wonder who you are, believe me, I do. I wonder, are you a middle-aged man, woman, or some punk kid? I wonder if you came and took that which did not belong to you out of my personal mailbox by cover of night, or if you were gutsy enough to do it in broad daylight? I wonder if the movie, The Kite Runner, was all you wanted it to be. I wonder what in the world you will do with it. Surely, it's not something you can sell on eBay, without a case, it's obviously stolen. Oh, and we thought it was a really, really good movie by the way- but not exactly the kind you feel like watching over and over again. At any rate, I hope it does you good, because it's the last movie you're going to be getting from us, trust me. I guess my mailbox isn't the sacred place I once thought it was. We'll send our things elsewhere, from now on. No big deal- there's a box right next to Target.

Oh, and before I forget, I wanted to say thank you. Thank you for stealing that movie from our mailbox, even while we were right here in our house. You gave me an incredible opportunity for an object lesson for my five year old. She heard me exclaim confusion as I noticed the flag was down on our box long before the mail would come. (Wait, see, you were hoping to deceive us in to thinking it was sent in the mail, right, until it never arrived? You thought we'd never notice. Little did you know you were dealing with the female version of Monk, minus the over-zealous germ fears. I totally noticed that our flag was down- that's just how I am. Thank you, by the way, for putting the flag down- wouldn't want to confuse or inconvenience our mail man, or let him know you might have stolen something.) It's interesting, by the way, that one of the central themes of this movie is stealing- stealing possessions, countries by war, childhood innocence. In it, a man states that the only sin is stealing- and all other sins come back to it as their motivation. It's an interesting thought, hope you thought about it long after the movie was done.

Back to that object lesson. My daughter knew everything that was going on, and heard me talking to the Netflix representative about it. She was heartbroken and full of confusion as to why someone would take what was ours, right from under our noses. Well, we talked about it, and I had the job of telling that sweet child that in the world things like this will happen, and it is sad, but there is a truth that we build our life around and stand solid on- Jesus Christ came to rescue this world from it's toil, sin and pain. My baby girl is still so innocent and unjaded that even this petty thing caused her great sadness. As it should. It was wrong. Even this movie, which centers around a culture so different than our own, and also one that isn't centered on christian truth has this running through it's veins. Stealing is wrong. We all instinctively know it.

But, we also talked about our love for you, and how you must really be hurting and lost, to do something so silly and pointless, to the detriment of another. How could we not love you? I'm loving you to the point of tears welling in my eyes even now. You're just like us, a creation of God every bit in need of grace as we are. So that is what Grace and I did- we prayed for you. May that incident of stealing The Kite Runner from the gray house on the corner come back to you again and again at the front of your heart- may it not bring you any guilt from the enemy who'd like to keep you in chains, but only the conviction which is from God, the God who loves you. May you run straight to Him, as we have, too. Maybe you already know Him and are feeling far away, maybe you're skeptical of all this. It's OK. We're still a little annoyed you took our movie, but goodness, if it brings you closer to the Lord, so be it. We're still praying for you as we think of it.

The Kochs

P.S.- Oh, and to the woman from Netflix, you surely aren't reading this, thanks. You were so sweet, and helpful. Thanks for not holding this against us. That was awesome. Sadly, I'm sure this happens all the time.