Guidance on Family Life

“Meeting for the Baha’i Children”

Oakland, California, Saturday afternoon, October 12, 1912

Source: Ella Goodall Cooper, National Bahá’í Archives, Wilmette, Illinois
Transcribed by Charleen Maghzi-Ader

What radiant children these are! How radiant! What radiant and beautiful children! These will become very good because they will receive Baha’i education. They will be reared beneath the shelter of Baha’u’llah.

They are just like fresh plants which have been sown in the Garden of Abha and they receive the water of the teachings of Baha’u’llah. They will be reared through the heat of the sun of reality.

Assuredly, amongst them there will appear souls – most blessed souls – each one of whom will be a radiant candle in the world of humanity, souls who will shine from the eternal horizon even as stars shine.

They are very, very pleasant indeed – exceedingly pleasant!

There is a difference in the development of a tree which is nigh unto fruitage, which comes under the education of the gardener when a fresh plant, from the very beginning to be reared and cultured by a skilled gardener, because the latter – the fresh plant – can be educated according to the wishes of the gardener, and the gardener can train each branch just as he wishes it to grow.

Such a tree, when reaching fruition, will reveal the handiwork of the gardener, showing full well the care given it by the gardener.

Now, these children are fresh plants which have fallen into the hands of the gardener. Wherefore, they will be very well educated; they will become fruitful trees; they will become very blessed trees; they will become most delectable trees. The gardener is blessed, and the skill of the gardener will become manifest to them.

‘Abdu’l-Baha then distributed among the children candy and envelopes containing rose leaves.

You are all my grandchildren!

I feel the utmost joy to be present here with you, especially to be surrounded with such radiant children. They are the very flowers of the Paradise of Abha.

Surely, a man in a rose garden is to be happy, and now I am happy in a rose garden. On one side, trees most fruitful and delightful do I see, and on the other hand, or across, I see my children who are flowers and most delightful to look at, and assuredly they give joy to be in such a place.

In San Francisco, through the hand of the gardener of God, who has appeared in the Orient, to see such a garden as the result of this handiwork in the West – this is a source of great thanksgiving in the East. Hence, I am hopeful, through the favors of that real gardener, that He may ever care for these trees and water them; that He may ever refresh, through His holy dewdrops, His flowers; may shower upon them from His clouds of mercy. May the sun of His reality shine upon them all. May they bask in the sunshine of His praises. May, day by day, this garden become more green and verdant, its trees become mightier and more beautiful, its flowers become more delicate and fresh, in order that the delightful fragrance of this garden shall refresh the nostrils of the longing ones both in the East and the West.

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