With no time to find a ladder, a couple of quick-thinking neighbors did the next best thing. One stood on the other\u2019s shoulders and pulled Jacky through the window \u201cjust as the roof fell into the chamber [his room],\u201d Susanna reports.<\/p>\n
His improbable rescue was quickly declared a miracle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could not believe it,\u201d his father wrote a week after the fire, \u201ctill I had kissed him two or three times.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the family lost nearly every possession they had, they all were saved. John Wesley remembers his father calling out from the garden as the fire continued to consume the family home, \u201cCome, Neighbours! Let us kneel down! Let us give thanks to God! He has given me all my eight Children: let the house go: I am rich enough!\u201d<\/p>\n
The fire was not God\u2019s will, but by God\u2019s grace all had survived.<\/p>\n
After the fire, Susanna sometimes referred to her Jacky as a brand plucked from the burning, a reference to Zechariah 3:2. She believed God saved her young son for a reason, a lesson Jacky learned well.<\/p>\n
Nearly 45 years later, Wesley remembered his mother\u2019s words. Lying in bed sick with consumption\u2014a generic term used at the time for any illness that caused a person to waste away\u2014Wesley wrote an epitaph for himself to be used if he didn\u2019t recover.<\/p>\n
The would-be inscription he penned in his journal began, \u201cHere lieth the body of John Wesley, a brand plucked out of the burning\u201d (November 26, 1753). (Wesley lived another 37 years and this epitaph was not used.)<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s #ThrowbackThursday<\/a> and we’re looking back at an event in February 1709 that changed the course of John Wesley\u2019s life. Check it out and see if you’ve heard this bit of history before. #UMCHistory<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/ga7Po5iWBZ<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/LhT1oP55aU<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 The United Methodist Church (@UMChurch) February 7, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n