1 + 1 = 2

It has always equaled 2.

And to two science and math oriented individuals- it always would equal 2.

This is the story of a man and woman who opened themselves up to the possibility of an equation neither of them thought possible. This is the story of how 1 + 1 came to a total of 3.

This story starts in the spring of 2021 when Moriah had attended a movie night she was invited to by her old friend, Amber. At that time, she didn’t know she was sitting across the room from her future husband; and Steven didn’t know he was trying to make small talk with his future wife. Both of them parted ways that night not expecting their paths to cross again. Moriah was still in the world, and Steven was new in Christ; but neither of them knew there was so much in store for them.

Fast forward to fall of 2021; Moriah left her old life behind to follow Christ and started going with her mom to the River Church. It’s there that she encountered the same person she exchanged fewer than five words with months ago at a movie night; Steven.

At this time Steven was rooted in his relationship with God; his focus was on his faith, his family, and friendships he was building. Moriah’s focus was on knowing her savior and living for him; her priority was her walk with God and the friendships He blessed her with.

Both Steven and Moriah had their eyes on the most important variable; their Savior. But both refused to accept the idea of a relationship beyond a friendship or family.

Both had walked in quiet places with the Lord, and both expected that because every relationship they had experienced prior ended with heartbreak -an equation with the same numbers would produce the same results. To both of them, they became closed to the idea of being with someone at all if all it equated to was loss.

To both Steven and Moriah; 1+1 would always equate to 2.

Despite reluctance towards any romantic relationships on both their parts; they were both open to friendship and had established one over more movie nights as a group. It was through their mutual knowledge of Jesus and their love for Him that they related to one another; and though that, they realized they related in more ways than one.

Steven and Moriah’s friendship began to grow, and by spring of 2023 both had realized the full bloom around them was more than a friendship that was mutually platonic. Both of them parted for seven days to pray and seek wisdom -because both knew what was happening between them was what they were most reluctant to experience again.

They took seven days to bring the equation they had always known to God, and in that he did something neither of them expected.

Where 1+1 ‎ = 2

He re-wrote it

1 + (1) + 1 ‎ = 3

He was their missing number. Jesus was the variable that brought them together, and to this day, he’s the variable that keeps them together. To a man well versed in math and a woman fond of science, the One they loved most re-wrote the equation they feared most.

Where there was fear there is now faith, where there was human reasoning there is now hope, where there was isolation and refusal to open up, there is now love.

Where there was once two, there’s now three.