The Master Listens to a Little Child
Baha'i Stories Blog · Read original
When in Bahá'í history
'Akká (today: Acre, Israel)
In the winter of 1905 the American believer Mary L. Lucas spent eight days as a pilgrim in the household of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in ‘Akká. In the little book she wrote afterwards, she described the Master with the children of His family:
It is beautiful to see the Master with the little children and observe His consideration for their childish troubles. One morning His tiny grand-daughter, about two years old, was talking to the Master in the most serious way, telling Him with expressive gesticulations her difficulty. Something had gone crosswise with her. The Master without a smile listened most attentively. This was a great lesson. When we consider what the Master has to bear — a man of ordinary strength could not endure it one hour — yet when a little child comes and confides in Him her trouble, how tender, how loving He is! How forgetful of self!
Shall I ever forget the heavenly smile and love expressed in that beautiful face when this tiny maiden was chanting for Him a Tablet! Every now and then she would forget a word, and He would gently chant it for her, while He drank His tea, seated in the corner of the divan. How the little children love Him!
(Mary L. Lucas, A Brief Account of My Visit to Acca, Chicago: Bahai Publishing Society, 1905, p. 16; also retold in Annamarie Honnold, Vignettes from the Life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, no. 84, "Love for children")
Source: Baha'i Stories Blog (https://bahaistories.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-master-and-little-children-few.html).
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