Middle C

You may recognize the name Lloyd C. Douglas. He wrote The Robe and The Big Fisherman. Both were made into movies. He lived in a boarding house when he was a student. On the first floor of that boarding house lived a retired music teacher who was in poor health and unable to leave his apartment. He and Douglas developed a friendship and a daily ritual. Each morning Douglas would come down the steps from his apartment, open the music teacher's door and ask him, "What's the good news?" The music teacher would pick up his tuning fork, tap it on the side of his wheelchair, and say "That's middle C! It was middle C yesterday; it will be middle C tomorrow; it will be middle C a thousand years from now. The tenor upstairs sings flat, the piano across the hall is out of tune, but my friend, that is middle C!"

There are not many things about which it could be said that it was the same yesterday as it is today and as it will be a thousand years from now. Experience has taught us one thing for certain: life is ever-changing. Good health may be replaced by sickness or even death. Prosperity may give way to poverty. Fame may fly away only to be left by anonymity. Because life changes continuously, many seek a safe harbor, a north star, a foundation to anchor onto which remains constant. Such a constant is Jesus Christ.

The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews said of Jesus, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever" (Hebrews 13:8 KJV). Jesus is always available to intercede and care for his disciples (Hebrews 7:25; 13:5). The Psalmist penned of deity: "O my God, Do not take me away in the midst of my days; Your years are throughout all generations. Of old You laid the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You will endure; Yes, they will all grow old like a garment; Like a cloak You will change them, And they will be changed. But You are the same, And Your years will have no end" (Psalms 102:24-27 NKJV). Jesus is a foundation which will not fail, a safe harbor during the storms of life, a secure north star to guide us. He is constant.

Douglas’s friend took comfort in the fact there was something in which he could be absolutely certain: middle C was and would always be constant. Disciples of Christ have a greater comfort, for when the last middle C sounds on the last musical instrument in existence, when time is no more and only eternity remains, Jesus will still be eternally caring for his disciples.