The essence of the message of every religion the world has known is the love of God

The essence of the message of every religion the world has known is the love of God. To this end, Bahá’u’lláh has given us many beautiful writings. In one particularly apt Hidden Word, He said, ''O Son of Being! Love Me, that I may love thee. If thou lovest Me not, My love can in no wise reach thee.

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Know this, O servant." I remember when I first read those words I thought it was a threat, that God was saying, "If you don't love Me, I won't love you." That didn't tally with my feelings about God. But one time a Bahá’í explained this Hidden Word through the analogy of a little fruit tree.

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If we put the tree out into the sunshine and the rain, he said, it would grow to become a beautiful tree and bring forth luscious fruit. But if we put it in a cold, dark cellar, it would die. The point: that the sun shines, the rain falls, whether that little plant is outside or not.

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All that little plant has to do is to get out into the sunshine and the rain and it will have all of the life-giving things that it needs to grow to be a robust, healthy tree. We are like that. Mankind is surrounded by the love of God always.

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It is there for us, and like the sun and the rain which continue pouring out their life-giving qualities whether the little tree is outside or not, the love of God surrounds us always. However, we have to do something about it. We have to get into the love of God. Jesus said, "Knock, and it shall be opened unto thee” We must knock.

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We must get into the sunshine of the love of God if we are to receive its benefit and we need it desperately. We need it now as we have never needed it before.

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