I was reading "The Gate Church" by Frank Damazio and this story caught my attention:
There's a lesson we can learn from the story told of a poor Scottish farmer named Fleming. One day, while eking out a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to help. There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.
The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy that Farmer Fleming had saved. "I want to repay you. You saved my son's life," said the nobleman.
"No, I can't accept payment for what I did," the Scottish farmer replied, waiving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel.
"Is that your son?" asked the nobleman.
"Yes," the farmer proudly replied.
"I'll make you a deal. Let me take him and give him a good education. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll grow to a man you can be proud of."
And the nobleman did. In time, Farmer Fleming's son graduated from St. Mary's Medical School in London and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin.
Years afterward, the nobleman's son was stricken with pneumonia. What saved him? Penicillin. The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill. His son? Sir Winston Churchill.
Taking a poor Scottish farmer's son into his home did not further the nobleman's ambitions in any way and, in a class-conscious society, could have been a hindrance. But the nobleman did not allow these things to prevent him from forming a relationship that seemed to be of no great benefit to him, yet in time proved to be the very thing that saved his own son.
No comments:
Post a Comment