An Indian monsoon can suck the energy right out of you. Humidity builds and the steamy air closes in—the prequel to the relief of a rainstorm.

It’s astonishing, the havoc this weather wreaks on a house. Doors swell too thick to be closed. Paint peels off the walls. Closets turn moldy. Kitchen cabinets warp and loosen, threatening to fall off the wall. It seems as if the weather is breaking down my flat. But I’m in no danger. I am merely inconvenienced. There are others who face a real threat.

Did you hear about the mudslides in southern India last month? At least seventy houses were buried, over 150 lives lost.

The news of this mudslide stirs up a memory of when I attended vacation Bible school as a five or six year old. Our teacher read us a story of a girl from Bangladesh, how some people had come to the girl’s village and told her about Jesus, and how she then decided to follow him.

The girl wore a charm around her neck that was supposed to protect her from evil. But when she started following Jesus, she took the charm off. She knew she wouldn’t need it anymore—Jesus would protect her from evil.

Her family was distressed by this. Without the charm she was vulnerable.

So when a mudslide came and buried the house with the little girl in it, the villagers said, “See, this is what happens when you take off your charm.”

But when they dug through the mud, they found the girl—not crushed and suffocated as they feared, but alive! The girl’s family and village were now much more receptive to hearing about this Jesus who had sheltered her from death.

In the safety of that vacation Bible school many summers ago, this story was far off and unreal to me. I didn’t grow up having to worry about mudslides or what would happen if I removed a charm from around my neck. I didn’t have to worry about monsoon-induced mold and peeling paint.

That story would still seem unreal to me, if it weren’t for the men, women, and children I see here everyday clinging to their charms. I hear their prayers and cries for relief lifted up at religious shrines in my neighborhood. I see images of devastation, homes and lives buried beneath mud and debris.

What once seemed far off is now as close as my next door neighbor.

The people who were far away from me were never far from the heart of God. People everywhere have the same hopes and aspirations, the same desire to impart good things to their children. Though the outer trappings may look different, and we may be separated by miles and oceans, languages and cultures, those far off people and places are just as near to the heart of God as the rest of us.

The sheer volume of images and information delivered to us from every corner of the earth can be overwhelming. What do we do with that information? Is it easy to identify with people in far off places? Do we find similar dreams and hopes and desires in their eyes?

Pray for those not-so-distant people and places. God passionately loves them and desires them to draw near to Him!

Original article: www.frontiersusa.org/blog/article/faroff-but-near-the-heart-of-god