The Golden Trowel

*A retelling for children, based on **Mahmúd's Diary** (entry of 1 May 1912).*

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On a spring morning, 'Abdu'l-Bahá traveled out to an empty field beside a great lake, near the city of Chicago. There was nothing there yet — only grass, and wind off the water, and a crowd of friends who had come from near and far.

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But the friends had a big dream for this spot. They wanted to build a House of Worship here — a beautiful temple where people of every background could come and pray together. It would be the very first one in all of the Western world. And now 'Abdu'l-Bahá had come to begin it.

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First He walked around the edges of the land. Then a lady stepped forward and handed Him a special trowel made of gold, just for this day.

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And here is the part the friends would tell their children and grandchildren. 'Abdu'l-Bahá did not simply bless the ground with words. He bent down low, and with the golden trowel in His own hands, He dug into the earth and set the first stone in its place Himself.

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Then, one by one, the others came — friends from America, from Persia, from India, from all over — and each took a turn with the same trowel, until the very first work of the temple had passed through the hands of many peoples and many lands.

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That windy, empty field is not empty anymore. The beautiful temple at Wilmette stands there today, with nine doors open to people of every kind — exactly as 'Abdu'l-Bahá began it. Great and lasting things often start small: with one person, kneeling down, willing to turn the first bit of earth.

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*This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see ["The Golden Trowel"](/stories/md-the-golden-trowel-wilmette).*

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