Throughout my life, when I said the word “promise,” I meant it. As a young child, I remember being in Brownies and promising to “do my best and do my duty” as a Brownie. I repeated a similar promise when I “flew” up to Guides. When I was confirmed at church, I promised to “renew the solemn promises and vows which were made at my Baptism.” Even as a child of eleven, I knew that a promise was profoundly serious, and it meant that I was going to do something to the best of my ability, and it was particularly important to follow through on my promise. I knew when you made a promise you were responsible to make sure you fulfilled that promise.
As I grew up, I began to realize how difficult it is to keep a promise. The dictionary defines a promise as, “a declaration or assurance that one will do a particular thing or that a particular thing will happen.” The dictionary also defines a promise as “declaring something will happen.” When I was young, I could promise to be on my best behaviour and to do my duty—I knew I would behave well because I promised to do so. It was a simple idea to me as a young child but as I grew up, I realized how difficult it is to keep making promises.
As adults we are pulled in so many directions. We have families to make promises to, and jobs, and volunteer activities. We make promises to our neighbours and our friends. We make promises to ourselves and our churches, and eventually we have promised things that we know aren’t humanly possible! Yet for those who take promises seriously, we attempt to fulfill all those promises to everyone. The result of trying to make all these promises come true leaves most of us feeling we have let everyone down. The problem seems to be: we promised too much!
As the dictionary says, a promise leads to a definite outcome—what you promise will happen, but not much about life here on earth is guaranteed.
The promise of Easter, however, is guaranteed! Jesus Christ died on the cross to guarantee that his believers will go to heaven! Jesus died so that we would be sure of his promise. He died so that we would be with him in heaven after we died. Jesus sacrificed himself so we would know, for sure, that our eternity would be spent with God in heaven—a place so wonderful that we can’t imagine what it’s going to be like! There’s nothing on earth that compares! I’m sure you all have been to a beautiful place where you have commented that it looks like heaven on earth. So, think about that image and imagine how wonderful heaven is going to be! Jesus wanted Christians to be assured of their place in heaven and that’s why he sacrificed himself for us. Jesus wanted his followers to know for sure that eternity will be spent in heaven because he gave himself for our sins. His promise will be fulfilled for us!
Easter, with the resurrection of Jesus Christ, assures Christians that we will be with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for all eternity. Jesus’ promise was fulfilled by his death and resurrection, and as Christians, this is the best promise we could ever have!
God Bless you all!
