It was truly a match made in Heaven!

Many prayers were prayed. Most of them were uttered long before Lily or Ryan decided to join Upward, a Christian dating app. As Lily and Ryan will both attest, the threads of story that God weaves through each person’s life are as unique as each individual. However, God does seem to work with some common fibers. Fibers like trials, sin, and broken relationships. Fibers like his love for us, hope, and faith. And the threads of Lily and Ryan’s lives are such as these. God was not sleeping in the years these prayers were prayed. Indeed, he was preparing Lily and Ryan to love one another.

Answering a prompt in his Upward profile, Ryan described his greatest spiritual need at the time as “to find that BEST friend and traveling companion on this narrow road.” Lily said she was looking for “someone who loves Jesus, invests in his mental health, knows his story, and loves reaching people for Christ.” In Ryan’s first message to Lily on February 6, 2023, he noted that Lily’s photos and prose “paint a colorful picture with lots of depth.” Lily noticed that Ryan was someone who valued his relationship with God and was attracted to his kind eyes, warm smile, and dashing good looks. She responded the same day and the pair began talking about meeting Jesus in college and the impact that had had on their lives.

Just a week and a half later, Lily served Ryan a healthy dose of humility when the two of them met on a tennis court for their first date. Lily was feeling nervous for the first in person date and shared her location with some of her friends (at one point, it seemed like Lily was taking a swim in a lake, and one of her friends was concerned but relieved to find out Lily was well and dandy and just walking around a lake with Ryan lol). Still, Lily loved Ryan’s kindness, patience, good communication and questions, gentleness, playfulness, and strength of character. For Ryan, the real life version of the “colorful picture” he saw in Lily’s profile was more wondrously animated than he could have imagined. (The makers of emoticons need to use Lily for their inspiration.) That day Ryan was smitten and Lily began to gaze at him with bright adoration in her eyes. On March 25, less than a month a half after their first date, Ryan asked Lily to be his girlfriend

Since that first date together, Lily and Ryan have enjoyed each other’s company exploring numerous parks, gardens, beaches, and especially cozy tea shops. The couple has been fortunate to share studenthood thus far in their relationship, and therefore a significant portion of their dates have been study dates. Study dates may not be the most exciting, but they underscore the reality that Lily and Ryan share a vision to become the best versions of themselves, enjoy having the privilege to support one another to reach their goal, and keep growing more in love with God and each other.