By David Hegg Perhaps nothing demonstrates the reality of a person’s integrity more than their willingness to keep a promise. As the great Alaskan poet Robert Service once wrote, “A promise made is a debt unpaid.” Yet, today, promises are thrown around like confetti, and seldom are they remembered, let alone kept. At the very core of our society’s desire to succeed should be a commitment to only make promises we can keep and then a persevering determination to fulfill them.  First, it should be clear that we should only make promises we can keep. Every time we endure another political season, we are reminded anew that most of those wooing our votes are experts at making promises they can’t keep. They hope that the election will be long over by the time we figure it out, and they’ll be firmly in office. A promise-keeper must make the right promises and have the power and perseverance necessary to fulfill them.   For me, the most significant promise ever made was voiced by God in the garden of Eden in Genesis 3:15: On the heels of Adam’s sin, He announced that one day, a “He” would come along to fix the problems sin brought into the world. This promise forms the very backbone of the Bible, as God continued to give installments of the promise, each carrying more and more information as to its ultimate fulfillment. In Genesis 12, God narrowed it down to Abram, through whom a great nation would come. And out of this nation would come the One through whom all the world’s nations would be offered the blessing of renewed relationship with the Almighty.   In Isaiah, the promise is further described in terms that must have seemed impossible at the time. The promised “He” would be born to a virgin and grow to be a king, sitting on David’s throne forever and ever. To top it off, his titles would include Almighty God and Prince of Peace. Indeed, anyone reading that promise would have been skeptical, yet the impossible came to pass as history moved forward.   Micah, the prophet, declared that this “He” would be born outside Bethlehem and even mentioned a well-known tower that had stood in the shepherds’ fields since the time of Jacob. In these fields, an industry grew up during the reign of Herod in Jerusalem. Those who ran the Temple Mount determined that only lambs raised near Jerusalem could be used for the great Passover feasts. Thousands of these special lambs were raised by special Levitical shepherds between mid-December and February. During this period, the shepherds stayed with their sheep around the clock to ensure these valuable lambs were expertly cared for at birth.  Luke records that it was to these shepherds that the angel first appeared to declare that God had kept the promise. These shepherds, whose task it was to certify that Passover lambs were, in fact, spotless and without blemish, were called to the very birthing place of Jesus. And there, lying in the manger, they found the “He” whom God had sent to be the Savior. And at that moment, the promise was fulfilled. God, the great promise-keeper, had brought the He into the world at the place where all the Passover lambs were born. And in that same place, some 33 years later, the Lamb of God – Jesus Christ – would willingly sacrifice his life so that all who follow him in faith might escape judgment and find eternal life.   As you celebrate Christmas, may your joy be full and time with family and friends be comforting and exciting. May you find time to remember the great God of Heaven whose promise was fulfilled in the birth of Jesus Christ the Lord. Merry Christmas!  Local resident David Hegg is senior pastor of Grace Baptist Church. “Ethically Speaking” appears Sundays.  The post David Hegg | A Promise Fulfilled appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.