The Ultimate “Secret Santa”

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In 1971 when he was down on his luck, Larry Stewart was given a free breakfast from the owner of the Dixie Diner in Houston, Mississippi.

He had been fired just before Christmas two years in a row, in 1978 and 1979. Around Christmas of 1979, while nursing his wounds at a drive-in restaurant during a very cold day, he noticed a waitress working the cars outside.

“It was cold and this car hop didn't have on a very big jacket,” he recalled, “and I thought to myself, 'I think I got it bad. She's out there in this cold making nickels and dimes.'" He gave her $20 and told her to keep the change. "And suddenly I saw her lips begin to tremble and tears begin to flow down her cheeks. She said, 'Sir, you have no idea what this means to me.'"

That experience was part of what turned Stewart into the famous “Secret Santa” of Kansas City. Another part is that he made a lot of money in cable TV and long-distance calling. Before his death at age 58 in 2007, he gave away thousands of dollars to unknown people. And since then, at least one anonymous person in Kansas City has taken up the cause, sometimes giving a stack of $100 bills to police officers to pass out (You wonder who appreciates it more, the recipients or the officers?)

Personal Satisfaction

Stewart, and his successor, undoubtedly gained a lot of personal satisfaction from their generosity, confirming the saying, “It’s better to give than to receive.” But the fact that they have gained so much publicity from their acts shows that such largesse is not common.

For most of us, going around handing out $100 bills would be nothing short of financial irresponsibility. But can you imagine how fun it would be? Can you imagine the joy you could bring to so many people you run across every day?

As Ebenezer Scrooge has testified, generosity, more than any virtue, captures the real spirit of Christmas. That’s why we give each other gifts at Christmas, to reflect that other old saying, “You can’t outdo the generosity of God.” In giving to each other, we follow God’s Christmas example.

Generosity is among the virtues we most admire, and the virtue that is more written and spoken about than, perhaps, any other. We give a lot of slack to people who are generous, even when we are inclined to criticize them. We don’t know whether or not Stewart was an otherwise good person, but the fact that he gave away his cash, showing compassion for others, covers a lot of sins.

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Gratitude is on the other side of the generosity coin, and of all for which we Christians have to be thankful, none is greater than Christmas. Despite what all the ads, holiday sales, decorations, music and hoopla might suggest, Christmas is not about annual sales targets or even “chestnuts roasting by the open fire.” Christmas celebrates God’s gift of him/herself to human beings.

That is such an awesome idea that it’s lost on most of us. And it’s ironic that if humans really grasped what it means, all this hoopla would be a genuine reflection of reality.

Many of us will go to church on Christmas and hear the familiar biblical stories about Jesus’ birth. They’re quaint. They’re cute. They lend themselves to elementary school nativity plays. But shrouded in mystery and myth, the “infancy narratives” – as Scripture scholars call them – are also full of valuable lessons for humanity that are easy to miss.

Among the most important can be found in St. John’s gospel: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” And the first letter of John in the Christian Bible explains why we give gifts: “We love because He first loved us.”

Short Attention Spans

Unfortunately, we humans have short attention spans and that applies to gifts. We may be pleased, sometimes even excited, about Christmas gifts but by mid-January we’re pretty much over them. And it’s even more applicable to God’s gift of him/herself. If we have any appreciation for the meaning of Christmas on Dec. 25, many of us have forgotten about it as soon as the Christmas leftovers are eaten. So if Christmas is a model for our gift-giving, our generosity to each other, shouldn’t they last the whole year?

Another part of this analogy is the nature of God’s gift at Christmas: It’s not a gift of stuff but of self. And for us, doesn’t that mean more than giving gifts? Doesn’t it mean being there for others, accompanying them in their sorrow or grief, taking to heart the words of the adult Jesus about feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and visiting prisoners?

You can imagine that a guy like Stewart, who was so generous with his wealth, was also good at giving himself to others, reflecting the belief that God is the ultimate “Secret Santa.”