Ten years ago Pieter and I had our first kiss.
We were in front of 200 of our closest friends and family on our wedding day but we could have been on a desert island for all I cared. I only had eyes for him.
We were married under a beautiful Natal Fig tree overlooking the sugarcane fields on the North Coast on October 30, 2010. It was a perfect day for a wedding.
Just two days prior a powerful storm had picked up our marquee and casually twisted it into a ball.
Wedding nerves were setting in and this was as about as close to a disaster as you could get.
The next morning I opened my Bible to Isaiah 33 and read: “Look on Zion… your eyes will see Jerusalem, a peaceful abode, a tent that will not be moved; its stakes will never be pulled up, nor any of its ropes broken.”
Mount Zion represents the Kingdom of God and looks ahead to the New Jerusalem that will descend out of heaven.
But in that moment I felt Holy Spirit say to me that while our convictions can be as fragile as my tent in a storm, snapped into pieces in a second, with Him in the center of our marriage He would secure us and nothing would be able to break what He joined together.
It is a promise I have remembered often, especially when enjoying the lightshow of an electric storm over the ocean.
Ten years feels like no time at all, and we are still babes at this marriage thing, but still it feels a significant milestone.
BC (Before Children) hiking was our escape together.
One memorable hike was the Fish River Canyon, sleeping under the stars, difficult river crossings and an alien landscape of jagged orange rocks and stark horizons.
I was convinced Pieter would propose (could there be a more romantic scenery?) but he hates to be predictable so he kept me on tenterhooks a few months longer.
Five years later our first child arrived and thrust us unsuspecting into the greatest adventure of our lives.
Walking for days with blisters between toes and eating only what you can carry while navigating harsh terrain was good training but it had nothing on years of sleep deprivation, nausea and nipple blisters.
Early on in our marriage we attended a marriage course run by a local church.
The course had stressed the importance of a regular ‘date night’.
We looked at each other confused.
But every night together is date night we laughed. Two children later and the penny finally dropped.
Traditionally, the 10th year of marriage is marked with tin or aluminum.
Both materials represent the durability and flexibility needed to make a marriage work.
Piet’s gift to me, a sports watch, was I felt more significant.
The gift of time!
We only have today for certain.
Count each second we have as precious and use it wisely.
Also a bunch of white Casablanca lilies – symbolizing celebration- fills our house with a heady fragrance.
Love is worth celebrating, especially when you have a catch like mine!
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They say marriages are made in Heaven. But so is thunder and lightning – Clint Eastwood
