becoming more than we are

Lewis talks about the inherent competition of things today in A Year with C.S. Lewis.

He says that all objects compete with one another. For me to become greater, others must become less.

However, there are two very curious exceptions to this rule. One, we learned in yesterday's reading. When we join together in marriage to another person, we unite with them and become one flesh. This means, in other words, that we become greater than we were...and so do they. We're no longer competing...we're one being, one person.

The other exception is with God. You see, as Aquinas would tell us, God is not a being in our universe. He doesn't compete with us. He is other. He is the ground of our being, in all things, but not by pushing them aside. Like the burning bush, we are aflame with Him without being consumed.

And so we see that in a Christian marriage, we experience oneness with our spouse and with God without being diminished, but rather by being grown into something new which we weren't before. We become a new creation.

God, thank You for the amazing, life-altering gift of true marriage, which makes us into a whole new person.