Seeing a tattered American flag displayed on the home next door after a windstorm, my aged father-in-law—a Colonel retired from the United States Air Force—set out to offer his neighbor a replacement for the damaged flag. I accompanied him as we met the neighbor, a short, portly man with white hair and a big smile. He had not realized that his flag was in tatters, and he graciously accepted the new flag as it was offered.

Alfred Lord Tennyson, one of the greatest poets in English history, wrote: “If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk in my garden forever.” These sweet terms of endearment sadly do not reflect mankind’s universal experience. The history of mankind’s attempts to find “true love” seems instead to offer very little that stands the test of time.

“She is a small woman with a globally familiar face, a hundred carat smile … a thousand year history at her back… She is wry and knowing, but she feels a calling… She has been shrewd, kind and wise.”

The well-known cliché “The early bird gets the worm” is often followed by another time-worn truism, “The second mouse gets the cheese.” While we chuckle at these mental word pictures, they do contain a grain of truth that applies to everyone.

My grandfather once promised to buy me a new bicycle.  He made that promise many years ago, right after a politician had promised him that all elderly Americans would soon be given a bonus. Neither of us saw those promises come true. For many generations, promises have been a mainstay of hope for people seeking a better life. Even today, we are bombarded by promises of better jobs, better living, a better economy, and so on. So, are there any promises in which we can take hope?