When I moved to the Kansas City area over two years ago, I kept hearing about a “Secret Santa.” This man would walk up to strangers on the street, in stores and other places and hand them $100 dollar bills. Sometimes, he would pretend to pick up a bill and tell the person he was sure they had dropped it. He never sought publicity, and his photo never appeared in the paper. All you would see was a hand with a bill in it being handed to another person.

No one, except a handful of people, who traveled with him through the area and across the country at times, knew who this man was. He didn’t want anyone to know who he was. All he wanted to do was to make their holiday more cheerful.

During the year, I would hear stories about this Kansas City resident who was anonymously bringing joy and cheer to an otherwise drab holiday. Sometimes I would think that what he was doing probably wasn’t so extraordinary because he was probably wealthy and didn’t need the money. Other times, I would consider how the person he handed the money to must have felt, and I knew that it was more than about a hundred dollar bill or even several hundred. Indeed, it was about much more and probably far more than I can understand.

Secret Santa, got his name not because he dressed up as Santa, he didn’t; but from never revealing whom he was. There were times when people would find themselves the recipient of enough money to pay their utility bills, rent and to put food on the table for their family. All this was done without any fanfare and publicity from Secret Santa.

A few days ago, a huge feature article ran in the Kansas City Star that gave a face and name to Secret Santa: Larry Stewart.

Stewart allowed himself to be named only because he is not expected to live much longer due to cancer. In the article, he said that he hoped his story would inspire others to give, and apparently it has since the papers this weekend were filled with people who plan to follow his pattern.

Larry Stewart never asked his recipients any questions. His gifts were random acts of kindness. Sometimes it was an elderly person, sometimes a young man or woman with children, sometimes a homeless person on the street. The backgrounds and income levels of these people did not matter to Stewart. He gave because God had been gracious to him. He never asked if they were deserving. He simply gave-more than $1.3 million over the years.

You see Stewart was born in Mississippi and raised on a hardscrabble farm by his elderly grandparents. He had nothing when he was young, but when he needed a spark of hope a kind man saw and changed the course of his life. It seems that at one point he was in a restaurant but had no money to buy a meal. The restaurant owner seeing he was poor, pretended he had dropped a $20 bill and handed it to him. That one act of kindness penetrated Stewart’s heart, and when he became wealthy through years of hard work, he was determined to pass that hope along to others. He did and will continue to do so after his death not only through funds that he will leave for this purpose but also by inspiring others to give.

Today, I challenge all that read this article to become a “Secret Santa” in your own area. One act of kindness can spark hope in another and can stay with them throughout life-Larry Stewart is proof of this. If you’re wealthy (or just well off) and sitting on your money like Scrooge McDuck, perhaps it is time that you climb down from the top of the heap and commit a few random acts of kindness. If you decide to go this route, I urge you to consider that judging another human being as being worthy or unworthy is not part of the process. Consider that God has not judged whether you were worthy of all your blessings-you weren’t. None of us are. We are told not to lay up treasures on earth. What better way to show we understand this than by helping others?

If you do nothing else this Christmas, I hope you’ll at least consider this story and the implications of what giving someone a spark of hope can mean.

That’s what God did when he sent his baby son to us. Think about it.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!