By Kathy Cheek

I have a favorite candy cane that I buy each year during the Christmas season. It is the Hershey Candy Cane with a ribbon of chocolate running through it. I have never bought any other kind since the first time I had one of these.

Last year when I was purchasing my annual first box of the season, I noticed the clerk behind the Walgreens counter looked stressed, tired and overworked––not real surprising this time of year. The last thing he needed was me piling on by rambling to him about my ultra-favorite candy cane, but I did. I just happen to think everyone should try them! He just continued to look stressed and totally uninterested in my candy cane monologue.

As I began to step away from the counter after paying, I poked a whole in the package and pulled out one of the candy canes to start enjoying right away. I pulled out a second one and turned back to the counter and offered it to him. In an instant, his wearied face broke into a giant look of surprise followed by an even larger smile. “For me?” He accepted it with a huge thank you. I watched him carefully lay it on a shelf behind him and he turned to me and said he looked forward to having it on his next break.

I wondered to myself if anyone had ever given him something for nothing or showed him a random act of kindness.

It was just a candy cane. Or was it more?

As we cross paths with people during our day, and especially during the frenzied hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, we need to offer smiles, patience, grace, and kindness. We just might change the course of someone’s stress filled day, with a smile…or with a smile and a candy cane.

Colossians 3:12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering;

Click to tweet: Small acts of kindness. Just a candy cane? #smallactsofkindness #compassion

Kathy Cheek writes faith-filled devotions and is published in LifeWay’s Journey magazine and Mature Living, and also contributes to several devotional sites, including Thoughts About God, Christian Devotions, and CBN.com.

Her favorite subject to write about is the rich relationship God desires to have with us and the deep trust it takes to live it out. She and her husband of 33 years live in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas and they have two daughters and one son-in-law who also reside in the Dallas area. You can read more of her devotions at www.kathycheek.com.