The story behind the story

His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog. He found a terrified boy mired to his waist in black muck, screaming and struggling to free himself.

Farmer Fleming managed to save the boy from what would have been a terrifying death. The following day a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman’s meager home. An eloquently dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy whose life Fleming had saved.

“I want to repay you,” said the nobleman. “You saved by boy’s life.”

“No, I can’t accept payment for what I did,” the farmer replied. At that moment the farmer’s own son came to the door of the family hovel.

“Is that your son?” the nobleman asked.

“Yes,” the farmer replied proudly.

“I’ll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education my son will enjoy. If the lad is anything like his father, he will no doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of.”

And that is exactly what the nobleman did. Farmer Fleming’s son attended the very best schools, and in time he graduated from Saint Mary’s Hospital Medical School in London. He went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin.

Years afterward, the nobleman’s son was now stricken with pneumonia. What saved his life this time? Penicillin! The name of the nobleman was Lord Randolph Churchill. His son, the one who had been saved from the bog by Farmer Fleming many years before, later became one of the world’s greatest leaders. His name was Sir Winston Churchill.

Churchill became a Member of Parliament in 1900. He then held many high posts in the government during the first three decades of the twentieth century. At the outbreak of World War II, he was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. In 1940 he became England’s Prime Minister and Minister of Defense. Queen Elizabeth conferred on him the dignity of Knighthood and invested him with the insignia of the Order of the Garter in 1953. And in 1963 he was made an honorary citizen of the United States, which was conferred on him by President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

How much different the landscape of the world would be today if Winston Churchill had not been pulled from the bog by a Scottish farmer when he heard him crying for help. His capable and valiant leadership during World II was desperately needed, for it put steel into the backbone of the British people and kept them from being invaded and conquered by Adolph Hitler’s Third Reich.

Farmer Fleming had no idea what the future would hold for his own son when he heard the nobleman’s son crying out for help. What if he had not heard the boy’s cry? What if, after hearing the his cry, he had failed to go to his rescue? What if he had not been able to keep him from sinking deeper and deeper into the bog until his life was lost? England would have lost the leadership of perhaps its greatest Prime Minister. And the world would possibly have never discovered the healing benefits of penicillin.

This story affirms a valuable truth that Jesus taught His disciples concerning the importance of giving: “Give and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure – pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return” (Matthew 6:38 NASV). Another way of expressing this is that you receive in proportion and in kind as you have given.

Whenever you meet a need – any need – if it is done in Christ’s name, you not only initiate a chain reaction that has the power to bless multitudes of people, but it also has the power to ultimately reach all the way to heaven.

There is a close relationship between living and giving. God is not nearly as interested in the quantity of the gift as He is in the quality of the giver. We should never forget that we make a living by what we get, but that we make a life by what we give. The world is composed of givers and takers – the takers may eat better, but the givers sleep better.

The life of Winston Churchill is an interesting story. Now you know the story behind the story.