Bella Vita & Love

Bella Vita is a wonderful coffeeshop in Granger, IN. I often frequent here because of the wonderful leather sofa, the relatively quiet atmosphere, and the free internet. They make good hot chocolates too. One of the things I love about Bella Vita is the name. Bella is such a great name – in fact, I named one of the horses on the Ranch Bella. It means “beautiful” in Italian. Vita means “life” in Italian. Beautiful Life… what a positive name for a store. Because even when things are bad, all we have to do is look around and see the beauty of life surrounding us. I am reminded of the movie, Life is Beautiful (Vita é Belle) where a Jewish man and his family were put in prison, and how he, with wit, humor, and lots of imagination, created a whole world for his son to escape the reality of life in the concentration camp. It really comes down to perspective.

That being said, on my recent trip to NY, I saw a simple bumper sticker that read “Love Wins.” I hadn’t ever seen it before but when I looked it up on the internet, I realized that it was something that came out of Rob Bell’s church in Michigan. (I haven’t heard the message yet, but plan to listen to it later tonight.) Naturally there were the usual bunch of negative people who thought the sticker was too trite or cheesy, but it struck me when I saw it. Love wins. Every time. Even when things are horrible, love – true love – will always conquer hatred. Love will always overcome because the truth is… God IS love. No matter what, LOVE will win in the end. The greatest sacrifice ever made was when God became man, and because of His great love for humanity, died for us. We have a chorus we sing that goes, “not one drop fell in vain, every drop had a name.” Jesus shed blood for each one us out of His great love. One author was upset and thought that the bumper sticker came off as smug and irritating – kind of like a Christian flipping the bird at unbelievers. I guess It’d didn’t come off that way when I saw it on the way home. It just to me, yeah! Love wins! Even when life looks bleak and things seem beyond all hope, know that love will win, good will triumph and light will prevail. In days like this, a little positive affirmation and hope can go a long way.

So to recap it all… Life is beautiful and love wins. Maybe it’s the hot chocolate speaking, but I feel better already.