Providential Protection . . .

 

I have long admired Winston Churchill. So, I was disappointed in 1999 when Time magazine named Albert Einstein as the Person of the Century. As Charles Krauthammer pointed out, Einstein was certainly the best mind of the century and even the most admirable man of the century.

But Churchill was indispensable, he said. Without Churchill, “Britain would have settled with Hitler—or worse. Nazism would have prevailed . . . The world today would be unrecognizable—dark, impoverished, tortured.” I agree.

I came across a story about Churchill recently that I had never heard before. During World War I, decades before he became prime minister, he voluntarily went to France to observe the fighting first-hand. A visiting general, an old acquaintance, sent him a message, wanting to see him. He was to walk three miles to a crossroads, where a car would meet him and take him to the general.

After waiting an hour at the crossroads, one of the general’s officers informed him the car had gone to the wrong crossroads and now it was too late for the meeting to take place.

Churchill trudged back in the rain, only to find the shelter he had left earlier no longer existed. Five minutes after he had gone, a shell came through the roof and killed the man inside.

Churchill said, “Suddenly I felt my irritation against General X pass completely from my mind. All sense of grievance departed in a flash. . . . I reflected how thoughtful it had been of him to wish to see me again and to show courtesy to a subordinate when he had so much responsibility on his shoulders.”

God obviously protected Churchill to become the indispensable person of the twentieth century, stopping Nazism before it reached Britain.

The apostle Paul, who also suffered adversity, testified, “In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28 NIV).

How has God protected you? How do you see his hand at work in your life?