London...

...was looking magnificent today - the view from the train as we chugged into Cannon Street station showed the dome of St Paul's against a clear blue sky, Canaletto-like and glorious. It felt all wrong getting the Tube on such a day, so I walked down Ludgate Hill. They still run real Routemaster buses along some routes and I caught one. It felt like 1979 and was wonderful. Then I had to transfer to a no. 11 as I needed to get to Chelsea. As we went down Whitehall, all eyes turned instinctively to the Cenotaph, where the blood-red poppy wreaths lie against the whiteness of the monument in memory of our war dead, "their memory hallowed in the land they loved."

Following that solidarity that follows such the silence of such a moment, I got talking to the lady sitting next to me. We shared brief comments about Remembrance Day, and about its importance, and so on, and the talk moved from there to linked things...she mentioned the church in Wimbledon which she attends...and then came an extraordinary coincidence/piece of Providence. Read on.

Some months ago, I left my bicycle padlocked at a local station for a few days while away. On my return I found an anguished note in the front basket:"Dear Cyclist - you have padlocked your bicycle to mine! I have been unable to access my bike for several days. Please telephone..." I quickly dialled the number to offer huge apologies, and discovered that I had inadvertently padlocked my bike to that of a local Anglican clergyman! We arranged to meet and when I'd completed my heartfelt apologies, got chatting over some coffee. His church turned out to be an enthusiastically Evangelical one, already known to me through an ecumenical discussion group. I wondered...might he be prepared to get involved with the Schools Bible Project with which I am involved? We badly needed an Evangelical on our committee...

Well, to make a longish story short: he subsequently sent me the name of a lady in the congregation, and a couple of weeks ago I cycled over to her house to drop her a note. We met, got on extremely well, and she kindly agreed to help with the Bible Project.

And today, on a number 11 bus on London I meet another lady from that same church, and they are close friends! We were both so amazed to discover this - after all, there are some 12 million people in London on any given day, so it seems quite astonishing that we should meet in this way!

And in a rather lovely way, it feels as though it's a nice sign of Providence for the Schools Bible Project...