Everyday life is based on promises. Our paper currency bears the words, ‘I promise to pay the bearer the sum of …’ Contracts, whether for a top job or dry cleaning a jacket are binding agreements and we are rightly angry if they are not honoured or have ambiguous small print. Children take promises very seriously so we should not make them carelessly or lightly to them. The Old Testament is the story of God’s promise to his chosen people, symbolised in the rainbow, and how he stayed faithful to them through their times of infidelity to him.