"With this ring I thee wed ..."

This is my wedding ring, which the love of my life, Belinda, slipped onto my ring finger just over 17 years ago. It is a reminder of the covenant that the two of us made to each other in the presence of God and witnesses, that we would love each other in holy matrimony for the rest of our lives.

As we are currently 1000 km apart, with me in Uitenhage and Belinda in Johannesburg, whenever I'm feeling lonely, I look at this ring and remember that there is someone out there who loves me.

Whenever I see the image of the cross in church, I am similarly reminded of the covenant that I have with God, what my Lord Jesus Christ did for me when He was crucified, and the reassurance that there is someone out there who loves me.

While I carry both covenants in my heart, my wedding ring no longer resides on my ring finger, but is now on my pinkie finger due to the fact that I'm "more man" than I was when Belinda married me. My goal this year, however, is to lose sufficient weight for my ring to go back onto the "correct" finger.