Of Reverence

William and I have been teaching the youth class at Bahai school this year and as a very special treat, all of the 8-18 year old students, their teachers, and parents got to visit the dwelling in Mazraih where Baha'u'llah lived for two years. Of all the Holy places other than the Shrines, Mazraih is undoubtedly my favorite one.  William shares the sentiment and explained it beautifully.  He said that whenever he's there, he feels consummate peacefulness and serenity and he thinks it must be in large part because this is the place that 'Abdu'l-Baha prepared for His Father, the site where He would finally be in nature again after nine years of utter remoteness from it.  After a lifetime of cruel and unjust imprisonment in the dankest, foulest, dirtiest prisons in the world.

The garden is full of luscious fruit and fragrant roses; towering trees and leafy trails.  It's paradaisical.  Add to that the fact that the Manifestation of God on earth walked the same steps and felt with His soles the same floor we feel with our own, and you begin to sense the stirrings of the divine that mingle in the air and the hearts of all who visit.

I was especially moved, though, yesterday by the signs of reverence evidenced by the children who went.  Two in particular stood out for their devotion and complete regard for the sacred.  They sat with their heads gently bowed, hands clasped, backs straight, and in complete silence throughout the prayers and the custodian's explanation of the sanctity of Mazraih. 

Their maturity at such tender years was quite remarkable.