John Foxe

John Foxe ended his life as a Christian writer. His most famous writing was Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. It contains the stories of protestant martyrs who died during Queen Mary’s reign of Christian persecution during the 1500s.

Presumably, he recorded these true accounts as a way of honouring the courage of those martyrs but, no doubt, also to encourage Christians, left behind, to live just as victoriously as they did, no matter what the cost, through persecutions they may experience, whether bigger or smaller.

I know that’s what John’s book did for me. Even though I couldn’t foresee my ever being in a situation where I would ever be called on to give my life for Jesus, it emboldened me to risk the much smaller persecutions I have endured while witnessing for God. 

Population apocalypse

But do we need another such book only on a different topic? Some say the West is in danger of experiencing a population apocalypse. They say Western people are forgoing procreation, instead relying on rising immigration levels to sustain their populations. It seems the number one reason Western people are relying on immigration, rather than on having their own children, is because they believe they cannot afford them.

And in response to this reasoning, some Christians worried about the West’s apparent lack of interest in getting married and having children, angrily lecture childless adults, calling them lazy, self-indulgent and irresponsible. But James 1:20 says, …the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. If human wrath doesn’t cause people to turn from sin, I doubt very much human wrath and putdowns cause single, childless adults to find the courage to marry and have children either.

Matthew 6:25-34

Other, less stern, Christians attempt to encourage children by reminding childless adults of Matthew 6:25-34. These verses speak of how God supplies food for the birds and clothing to the lilies in the field, but they bring little comfort to Christians who have experienced poverty, hunger and “nudity” while being Christians. Take me for instance! As a university student, I regularly went two weeks at a time without food and was unable to buy clothes that covered the amount of my body that I would have liked to have let alone clothes as pretty as the lilies in the field! Because of this, I experienced agonising hunger pains in my stomach and sexual harassment both at church and in secular places.

I was accused by Christians and non-Christians alike of wearing my “immodest” clothing because I wanted men sexually harassing me and was reprimanded for apparently enjoying my sexual harassment (the sexual harassment apparently made me feel proud). I couldn’t afford to turn my heater on and didn’t have enough money for the bus. I walked very long distances instead, sometimes getting up so early to be on time to places, it was still dark and the stars were in the sky. At that time, I lived in a cold, windy and rainy town, and so I regularly felt cold, wet and windblown to the point of having painfully chapped lips.

Too Busy

When I would reach out to Christians and non-Christians for help, they would, if they even bothered to reply, usually say they were too busy to assist me, struggling also or would just look at me as if I’d asked them to climb Mount Everest for me! Then, after failing my university degree, I moved back home to my parents (to start a new degree) where I experienced two years of unemployment.

Sneering At God’s Provision

For those two years, I was sneered at for being an adult still living with my parents (not an enjoyable experience. Why would they sneer at God’s provision for me?), and although I am employed now, jobs have always been hard for me to get and I have frequently lost them, no matter how hard I try, frequently still requiring assistance from my parents.

Now, with my parents ageing, I wonder, who will be there for me, if I once again I lose my job (No friend, extended relative or work colleague is as generous as a parent is). And that’s me as a single, childless woman! How much more worried would I be if I had kids? How do the above verses apply to me? How can I, and Christians like me, find a way to trust them, having experienced what we have experienced in the past?

Steaming, Hot Casseroles

And that’s why, just like we have a Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, I believe we should also have a Foxe’s Book of Provision. Because rarely you will hear someone give an account of God’s provision, but the account is usually one sentence and incredibly vague. They will say something like, “My family had no food one night, but then, someone knocked on the door, holding a steaming, hot casserole dish in their hands, saying, ‘God prompted me to bring this to you.”’ Well, that doesn’t explain why God never prompted anyone to bring any food to me or whether that same person came back the next night with another steaming, hot casserole dish and if they had done that continually for years until that hard-off family finally found a job.  

Babies Are Not Potatoes

Instead, we need older Christian men and women to give detailed, line-by-line accounts of how God provided for them, their spouse and their children over the years, until their kids reached adulthood. Afterall, babies are not potatoes. If you buy a pet goldfish and run out of money to feed it, big deal. But if you have a baby, and can’t feed it, clothe it, educate it, buy it medicine, keep it warm, dry and out of the wind, you can’t just say, “Oh, well, let’s just flush it down the toilet.”

Pattie Mallett

Until such time as we get a “Foxe’s Book of Provision,” that never goes out of print, I recommend Nowhere But Up: The Story of Justin Bieber's Mom. In it, Pattie Mallett includes a detailed, line-by-line paragraph of how God provided for her and her baby son, but then, again, I still would love to receive an explanation as to why, during my university years, I didn’t receive the same assistance! Guess, I’ll find out in Heaven!

Matthew 6:25-34 NKJV

Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?...

“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Therefore, do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.  Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

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