The Hardest, Kindest Errand

A retelling for children, based on Portals to Freedom by Howard Colby Ives (George Ronald, 1937).

Lua Getsinger had sailed across an entire ocean to get there.

She was one of the very first people in America to become a Bahá'í, and she had traveled all the way to a grey prison-city called 'Akka, by the sea. That was where 'Abdu'l-Bahá lived as a prisoner. Lua had come the whole long way just to be near Him.

More than anything, she wanted to serve Him. As she crossed the ocean, she must have dreamed about it. Maybe He would give her some great and important work to do. After coming such a very long way, she felt ready for something big.

One day, 'Abdu'l-Bahá gave her a task.

There was a man in the city who was poor, and very sick. 'Abdu'l-Bahá was too busy that day to visit him Himself, so He asked Lua to go in His place — to bring the man food, and to take care of him. Lua went off gladly. To be trusted with a job by the Master felt like a wonderful honor, and she carried it proudly.

But when she got there, the place was dreadful.

The room was dirty. The air smelled of sickness. The poor man lay there looking so wretched that it made Lua afraid. What if I catch his illness? she thought. And so she did not stay. She turned around and hurried away, back toward 'Abdu'l-Bahá, sure that He would understand why she had run.

He did not say it was all right.

'Abdu'l-Bahá looked at her sadly, and He said something Lua would remember for the rest of her whole life:

Dost thou desire to serve God, serve thy fellow man for in him dost thou see the image and likeness of God.

Go back, He told her. If the house is dirty, clean it. If your brother is dirty, wash him. If he is hungry, feed him. And do not come back until it is finished.

And then He told her something that turned the whole lesson around, like a key unlocking a door. He said that He Himself had gone to that very room and done all of those things — not just once, but many, many times.

Imagine that! All this time, the great Master Lua had crossed the world to wait upon had been quietly going to the worst room in the city, caring for a sick stranger that nobody else would even touch. The "something big" Lua had been hoping for had been right there in front of her the whole time. She had run away from it in fear — but 'Abdu'l-Bahá had been doing it in love.

Lua took the lesson deeply into her heart, and she kept it there for the rest of her life. Years later she told the story herself, which is how we still get to hear it today.

And here is what it teaches us. The biggest, most beautiful kind of service is not always grand or famous. Sometimes it looks very small — like kneeling beside one person who simply needs help. When we care for someone everyone else forgets, 'Abdu'l-Bahá showed us, we are doing one of the greatest things a person can ever do.

This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see "Cannot You Serve Him Once?".

Ives, H. C.. (1937). *Portals to Freedom*. George Ronald. https://bahai-library.com/ives_portals_freedom