What is marriage?

Marriage is when two people decide to merge destines. Marriage is when I becomes We. Marriage is partnership, teamwork, friendship. Marriage is Love, and I mean Love in the truest sense of the word (the 1 Corinthians 13 or "God is Love" sense.) Attraction, romance, compatibility are not unimportant things - but they pale next to love.

Love is like this prayer of Tobias, from the apocryphal Book of Tobit:

Blessed are you, O God of our ancestors,
and blessed is your name in all generations forever.
Let the heavens and the whole creation bless you forever.
You made Adam, and for him you made his wife Eve
as a helper and support.
From the two of them the human race has sprung.
You said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone;
let us make a helper for him like himself.'
I now am taking this kinswoman of mine,
not because of lust,
but with sincerity.
Grant that she and I may find mercy
and that we may grow old together.

It is my wife and I's anniversary today. She has given me the gift of seeing the world through different, less cynical eyes. And I see clearly now, where before all I witnessed was an indifferent haze.

We will not always have each other - our lives on Earth are not endless, and no doubt one of us will have to go on without the other at some point. I realize that now more than ever. But we do have each other today. And for this, I am very grateful to a God who has given me so much. :-)