Ever since I can remember I have loved the State Fair of Texas, the largest state fair in the nation.  My parents and I always went and had a good time but we pretty much had no money to blow on rides and certainly not on games.  Still, we went early and availed ourselves of the Natural History Museum, the Dallas Aquarium, the Dallas Museum of Art (now located downtown), and all the free exhibits they had to offer.  There was the Hall of State, the Women’s Museum, and the Texas Agriculture building.  In the ’70’s you could walk through and have an entire meal just on free samples alone.  My daddy lived for it!  They don’t do that anymore.  We would walk along Fair Park’s beautiful Esplanade, a 700 foot reflection pool with tall, spraying fountains, and admire the largest collection of art deco exhibition buildings, art, and sculpture in the United States.  I loved looking at all the murals which thankfully have now been restored.  Built in 1936 for the Texas Centennial and world’s fair, the exposition is credited with buffering Big D from the Great Depression.  I have always been aware of the irony of just how little money matters and, at the same time, just how important it can be.  This year I jumped the gun and bought our fair tickets on line thinking to save a little money.  To me the cost just to get in has never been cheap.  After that all food, drinks, rides, and games cost additional money.  Yes, there are discount days but sometimes one cannot make them.  Last night my husband came home from work with these two free tickets good for admission any time.  All I could think was that was $32 we could have spent on rides or games!  Then I was at the grocery store this morning speaking with my favorite checker about the fair.  I asked if she was going and she said no.  She went on to say she’d lived here fourteen years, that her daughter was fifteen, and they had never been.  “I’m paycheck to paycheck.”  And then with no small amount of chagrin I realized I’d become what I swore I never would be — someone slightly unthinking about money.  I was ashamed that after a lifetime of poverty I’d managed to somewhat forget in less than a decade.  But then I remembered!  I raced home to get my husband’s free tickets; texting him to ask if it was OK if I gave them away to this lady.  “Sure” my sweet love texted back without hesitation.  So I came back to the grocery store and waited until all the people were through her line.  Then I asked if she would like these tickets for the fair.  Tears welled in her eyes and I explained they were free from my husband’s employer and that we already had ours.  “Promise me you’ll go,” I said and she replied, “Well how can I NOT go now?!”  Then I smiled and said, “You and your daughter have fun!”  As I turned away I heard her say, “God is good!”  Yes He is.  I was so proud I’d found a way to share an October blessing that was personal (thanks to my husband) and I thought of the scripture in Acts 20:35 where St. Paul says:

I have showed you all things, how that so laboring you ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

Indeed it is.