The Small Room in Baltimore

A retelling for children, based on Mahmúd's Diary, from the entry about the stop in Baltimore in November 1912.

In a city called Baltimore, there lived just three small families who loved the Bahá'í Faith. Only three! All around them were busy streets full of people who had never even heard of it. Sometimes it can feel very lonely to believe something special when hardly anyone near you believes it too.

One autumn day, those families heard the most exciting news. 'Abdu'l-Bahá was traveling by train from one big city to another — and His path would pass right through their state. The friends in the next city said it would break the little Baltimore community's heart if He went by without stopping. And so 'Abdu'l-Bahá decided to stop.

The train pulled in early in the afternoon. Now, you might think He would rush straight out to meet everyone. But 'Abdu'l-Bahá was very tired. He had been working hard for a whole week, speaking and meeting people from morning until night. So that afternoon He rested quietly in His rooms, saving His strength.

When evening came, He came down and rode a short way by carriage to the home of one of the families. It was not a great hall with thousands of seats. It was somebody's own parlour — a small room in a small house. Only about fourteen people were there: the three Baltimore families, two visitors who were curious about the Faith, and a few friends who had traveled in to join them.

The host set out a chair, and 'Abdu'l-Bahá sat down right in front of the little group, close enough to look each person in the eye. He did not read from any notes. He simply talked to them, warmly and gently, like a father talking to his children.

And here is what He wanted them to know. A family that keeps the Faith all by itself, far from any big community — waiting a long, long time between the rare visits of traveling friends — has a very special and important job. Their quiet prayers at home, their letters to friends far away, their kind example day after day: these are like tiny seeds. And from tiny seeds, He told them, God grows great big things in time.

After about two hours, 'Abdu'l-Bahá returned to His hotel and went to rest, for in the morning His train would carry Him onward.

To most of the world, nothing important happened in Baltimore that night. No huge crowd came. No famous speech was given. But those three families never, ever forgot it. They told the story to their children, and to their children's children. And years and years later, when Baltimore finally grew its own little community, the people who helped lead it were the grandchildren of the very families who had welcomed 'Abdu'l-Bahá into that small room.

You do not have to be in a big, crowded, important place to do something that matters. Even one small family, praying quietly and being kind where they are, can plant a seed that grows for a hundred years.

This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see "Baltimore: A Day of Rest on the Eastern Seaboard".

Maḥmúd-i-Zarqání, M.. (1998). *Mahmúd's Diary: The Diary of Mírzá Maḥmúd-i-Zarqání*. George Ronald.