Well, it's Friday already, and it's another edition of Things Unseen.

And this week I've been sharing some memories and reflections on friends who helped me in my early Christian life between my conversion just before my 15th birthday

and my ordination when I was 23.

The final friend I've chosen was a man whose name was Bill.

I first saw Bill and his family at the church I attended as a student, and later that year I met him again in a Hebrew class I took when I was an undergraduate.

He was older than I was by some way and he had several children.

And as it happened in the Providence of God, we ended up in the same year in our theology degree at university. We were different, not only

in age, but also, I think, very much in personality. But I cannot adequately express the impact

his wonderfully human, personal godliness made on me. He'd been a skilled market gardener and the Lord had called him into the ministry.

His life was full of the rich heavenly fruit of the spirit and especially patience. He and his

wife Marion with their children, I think, probably survived on a pittance. But what they had, they shared with me and treated me like a member of their family.

And I treasure the memory of my student days with them.

A theological education was by no means all conservative.

I'm not quite sure how much I learned from lectures, with some notable exceptions,

but I land a great deal from Bill and his family and their love for Christ. His life was

one of humble godliness, seriousness without lugubriousness. His life was weighty with grace, without being heavy with dullness.

And he had a level of loving devotion to the Lord that made me feel glad and at ease in his presence,

even although I felt then and still do now that I would never grow spiritually tall enough

to be the same height he was.

I want to pick out one thing Bill said to me that has stuck with me, and I think left an

indelible stamp on me, especially as a minister. For a reason, I can't quite remember, I was

invited to come one summer Sunday evening from my home city to

...