My wife, Amanda, and I are in the thick of learning Italian. It’s a beautiful language with rules that are always shifting and never consistent — a wonderful metaphor of our daily life in Italy. Most days, we’re learning the difference between passato prossimo and imperfetto verb tenses, but this week our lesson took an interesting turn. 

We landed on the topic of expressing your love for another person in Italian. Similar to English, there are different ways of expressing love depending on the relationship. For example, you wouldn’t say the same thing to your children (ti voglio bene) that you would to your wife (ti amo). We’re always curious how we can use what we learn in a future spiritual conversation, so Amanda asked our teacher, “How would you express your love for God? How would you express a love even deeper than love for your spouse?”

Our teacher gave her a gracious smile. In her best broken English, she said, “In Italy, we don’t say we love God. We say we believe in God.” Her words hung in the air, cutting straight to our hearts as she continued the lesson.

It was hard to concentrate during the rest of the class. The implications of that answer were grave. If what our teacher said is true, then that means there is no cultural understanding of a deep encounter with God like Jesus described. Furthermore, this sweet and loving Italian that we live life with everyday has no understanding of loving God as a person rather than simply a spiritual being. But the good news is that while Italians may not have a single way to express their love for God, He has a multitude of ways to express His love for them.

We left class that day with a refreshed sense of awe toward God. In a country where the church is more often a place than a people, God shows Himself in a personal way. He walks the cobblestone streets, smiling. His heart beats for His people and He waits patiently for the next conversation. In a culture where the language has not yet informed the heart that God can be deeply and intimately known, God is choosing to make Himself known.


Darrin and his family make disciples in Italy.


The people in this story are real, but their names have been changed to protect their privacy.