I really enjoyed this spiritual biography of Winston Churchill, co-written by his great grandson Jonathan Sandys and journalist Wallace Henley, because it offered a perspective that other biographies don’t — that is, the role of God, destiny and calling, and providence on his life.
A few things stood out in this book:
- Churchill had a great sense of calling and destiny even as a teenager. In 1891, when he was just 16, he had told a good friend: “This country will be subjected somehow to a tremendous invasion. I shall be in command of the defences of London, and … it will fall to me to save the Capital and save the Empire.” This was a most improbable prediction, because for most of his life, he was considered a failure. No one would have imagined that his bulldog tenacity, unfettered optimism and courage in the midst of darkness, would one day make him a bulwark against rampaging evil which was the Nazi Party.
- God preserved His life more than once, underscoring the providence of God. To recount one incident, in 1915, Churchill served at the frontlines in France.
“While serving three miles behind the front lines, he received an unusual but urgent summons from Lieutenant General Richard Haking to meet in Merville. Churchill set off on a dangerous walk ‘across sopping fields on which stray bullets are always falling, along tracks periodically shelled’. A driver was supposed to meet him at the Roger Croix crossroads, but when Churchill arrived, he found no car and no driver. Finally, hours later, the escort arrived, but without a motor car… as it turned out, the meeting with the corps commander had been cancelled.”
“Annoyed that his time had been wasted, Churchill returned to his previous location behind the lines. He was frustrated that the officer’s order and subsequent cancellation had resulted in ‘dragging me about in rain and wind for nothing’. He reached the trenches without mishap only to discover that a mere fifteen minutes after he left, a German shell had exploded just a few feet from where he had been sitting. The shack-like structure built into the trench was demolished, and one of the three men inside had been killed. ‘When I saw the ruin I was not so angry with the general after all’, he wrote.”
My conviction is that God raised up Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt to lead the free world against the incursions of tyranny during WWII. This book offers a perspective of the hand of God in Churchill’s life, even when he was unaware of it. It is a very inspiring, moving and encouraging read, that God is sovereign over the affairs of man and nations.