If you are in any way involved with children, I have bad news for you. I have somber tidings. If you are involved with children, your work is not complete. It has not been completed, it is not completed, it never will be completed. Anyone who works with children knows that they will never quite do what you want them to do, they will never achieve the perfection you long for, and they will never arrive at the goals you set for them. Just get it out of your mind that you are going to raise perfect children. You are not. It won’t be done.
However, that does not mean you should give up, even though the goal will never be reached. Do not surrender the children, even though the target seems unreachable. Keep on keeping on with the children. There is joy in the process, and there is glory at its end.
Oh, some have been tempted to give up. Parents have given up. You’ve heard, haven’t you, about the young woman who went away to college – I think it might have been to Hampton – and when she got home she found out that her parents had moved and left no forwarding address?! There was a message in that! Some have been tempted to give up on their children. But don’t give up on the children. There’s joy in the process of raising them and there is glory at the end of the day.
Teachers have given up. Some of you know the story of Helen Keller – a young woman born without sight and without hearing. Various teachers tried to reach this profoundly challenged child, but could not. But there was a gifted young woman, Annie Sullivan, who saw in the young Helen unlocked potential, and through a system of touching created a way to communicate. She did not give up on this child. There was joy in the process and glory at its conclusion.
If you are involved with children, your work will never be complete. But if you are committed to the goal of bringing these children toward what God intended them to be, you will be fulfilled, and you will know that there is joy in the process and glory at its end.
Our creative God knew this when in His heart He purposed, as the writer of Hebrews has it, to “bring many children to glory”. He knew this and embraced this even though He understood that there would be pain in it. Pain and all, still there would be joy bringing children to glory. So our loving God chose to call Chastine White Bailey into His service, to accomplish His purpose of bringing many children to glory. Today we praise God for one who with grace and dignity took up this task, with all its frustrations and with all its pain, but who found joy in the process and glory at its end.
I
You see, when God made our world, He did not make it complete. He did not finish everything. He left it to us to have the joy and the responsibility of continuing His work. When you think about it, what we human beings are called to do is awesome. It is immense. We are to develop and bring to completion this world and all who live here. We have the responsibility of taking the plans laid out by the Master Engineer, Al, and bringing them into being. We are like substitute teachers who arrive in the classroom to find plans left behind by the master teacher; and it is our task to bring those plans to life.
So the writer of Hebrews reminds us:
“What are human beings that you are mindful of them … that you care for them? You have made them for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned them with glory and honor, subjecting all things under their feet.”
God has put us in charge of this world. It’s not finished yet. But there is joy in the process and glory at its end.
One Sunday after worship, Chastine came downstairs from her usual place with the preschool children. It was February and the children were working on Valentines to take home for their parents. Chastine was disturbed. She had had a little disagreement with some of the other workers. It seems that some of her colleagues were not satisfied with the pasty, chopped up, messy productions that our two and three year olds were making. They wanted something better for the children to take home. So some of our teachers had “improved” those Valentines. They cut out the hearts, they pasted the lacy doilies, they made the children sit to the side while they, the adults, did the work. Chastine was disturbed. She did not agree. She said, “They don’t understand that this perfect Valentine won’t be the child’s work. We don’t want perfection here. We want the child’s involvement. We want the children to give their own gifts.” Chastine understood that when you are working with a child, the product may not be perfect, but the point is that there is joy in the process and glory at its end. The point is that you bring a child to glory. Just as God’s purpose is in bringing many children to glory.
Melody, Chastine chose you to bring you to glory. She poured into you authentic love and constant affection. She brought you to glory with her unfailing sense of what you could become. Just as God purposes for each one of us and nourishes His dream as to what we may become in His Kingdom, so also she nourished dreams for you. From the time even before you can remember, she chose you, she prayed for you, she encouraged you. I well remember that, at your wedding, you spoke with affection about her sure sense of what you could become. You called her your moral compass. To her you could go for guidance in what to do. Melody, we do not pretend, do we, that there was never any pain involved? I’m sure there was. Children don’t always appreciate truth when they hear it, even when they ask for it. But your mother knew what you might become, she chose you, nurtured you, and stayed beside you. And you have become an extraordinary young woman, because Chastine Bailey knew the joy in the process and saw the glory at its end.
Charles, on Saturday night you said you had never really thought of Chastine as merely a mother-in-law. You said that she was like a second mother for you, with no dishonor to your own mother. I dare say that that is because she saw in you so much potential. She heard the melody that is in your heart (and you can spell that word with or without the capital letter). She saw that you would be a loving husband and father. And just as God reaches out and brings children to glory from all sorts of people, so Chastine reached out and extended to you the warmth of her love. You were included in her purpose, to bring many children to glory.
Allison, sweetheart, you are one of the most loving children I have ever known. You have a smile that lights up the room. Your ability to touch people is wonderful. I hope you never lose that. But Allison, your grandmother gave you that. She taught you that. When did we ever see Chastine Bailey without a smile? When did we ever see her unwilling to see something wonderful in everything? Allison, you are one of the many children she was bringing to glory. Give thanks for your grandmother.
Lindsay, honey, when you were really little you were so shy. You didn’t want too many people touching you or holding you. You really didn’t like us to look at you too long. Grandmother would bring you by the church, and some of us would try to reach out to you, but you would just turn your head. You were so little, and you were kind of scared. But you know what is so wonderful? Grandmother didn’t push you. She didn’t force you to do something you weren’t ready to do. She didn’t insist that you let scary old Pastor hold you. She gave you time. She told you that we loved you and that it would be all right. She just waited for you to be ready. Lindsay, that’s a gift to you. Grandmother knew that if you had a little time and a little space you would be all right. How patient she was! How she was willing just to let us be ourselves – but still she knew what she thought we could do! As God, in His grace, knows what He wants of us, but is infinitely patient with us. He gives us freedom. Bringing many children to glory.
Tyler is too small to be with us today. But to me little Tyler is a reminder that when you are committed to children to glory there is never too much. Never too large a burden, just another opportunity. A lesser woman might have said to her daughter, “I’ve helped you with two, but I’m finished. One more is too much.” But she didn’t. Chastine embraced Tyler, the last and the least. Are we surprised? We in this church are not. Chastine, like her God, was always invested in the last, the least, the lost, and the lonely. Chastine, like her God, saw that all children, red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in His sight. Like God, bringing many children to glory.
Now for the biggest child of them all. Alfred Bailey, you and I know that we men are nothing more than overgrown boys! Without women like Chastine in our lives, we would mess up big time! And she knew you, Al. She understood you. Forty-six years with you. She understood the engineer, the gadgeteer. She said to me one day, “If it plugs into the wall, my husband wants it.” She understood your fascination with machines like my wife understands my need for books. What grace we receive! What space we are given! Just as God invites us to create with Him and to finish His world, and knows that we are going to want to tinker with it and sometimes get it wrong. But Chastine understood you, Al. And no greater gift can any husband receive than that. To be understood. To have somebody know our secrets and love us anyway. That’s what God does; He knows all there is to know about us and loves us anyway! What a gift! The biggest child of all is brought to glory by understanding.
II
And so what do we see today? Chastine’s work is not perfect, no, for no one who undertakes to work with children will find her work perfect. Chastine’s work is not perfect, but it is complete. It is finished. And we who were shocked at the suddenness of her illness and at the pain of her death, what do we see today? If her children, her grandchildren, her husband, are not yet perfect, but are en route to glory, what do we see?
Hear God’s word: “We do see Jesus”.
We do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
What do we see? We do see Jesus, who gives meaning to life and to death. We do see Jesus, who is Chastine’s savior and Lord and guide. We do see Jesus today.
Suffering. Chastine was no stranger to suffering. She had suffered serious illness years ago. But her acquaintance with suffering gave her something special, and whenever in our congregation a woman was faced with the consequences of cancer, I could send Chastine to be at her side. In her, we do see Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of suffering.
We do see Jesus through our shock. None of us were prepared for the swiftness of Chastine’s passing. I for one have found my own emotions very raw over these past two weeks. We have learned again through this experience how precious life is. We have learned to reckon with our own mortality and to cherish each moment while we have it. I think of my own little granddaughter, just two months old yesterday. I think of what I want for her and what I must do for her. I think of what I must do for the children of our church and of our community, while there is time. We do see Jesus through our shock.
But most of all, we do see Jesus, the Lord of life and the conqueror of death. We do see Jesus, who suffered for us and for our salvation. We do see Jesus, who gave His life’s blood to deal with our childishness. We do see Jesus, who suffered the pain of death, went to the grave, and rose again. We do see Jesus, the pioneer of our salvation, through whom God is bringing many children to glory. Today we do see that Jesus has brought to completion, to glory, this child, this Chastine. There was joy in the process; there is glory at its end.
