Back in ’09 there was a house fire that led to a dramatic rescue. One of the family’s sons was trapped in the house. A quick-thinking neighbor had someone get on his shoulders in order to reach the boy. Their bravery and ingenuity allowed five-year-old John to escape just seconds before the flames brought the roof crashing down.
John’s father Samuel gathered everyone around as the gutted house finished burning. “Come, neighbors, 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.”
This dramatic rescue would stay with John throughout his life. To have escaped from the fire by so narrow a margin - he felt it was a sign that God was with him. He felt he was “a branch plucked out of the fire,” drawing from Zechariah 3:2. Each year he would pause to commemorate the anniversary of that fateful night.
There is ample evidence that God was with him that night – and would continue to be. On that night in ’09 – February 9, 1709 – it was young John Wesley who was saved from the flame. He would go on to see thousands saved through his preaching and countless souls discipled through the Methodist Church that he would found.