Burnt Norton coincidence

I long ago learned that coincidences are common. They can still be very striking. I began my day today with Sinclair Ferguson's book on sanctification Devoted to God. In the opening chapter he quotes T S Eliot's line at the opening of Burnt Norton, one of his Four Quartets. It goes

Time present and time past

Are both perhaps present in time future

And time future contained in time past.

As I got ready to go out I popped the radio on as I did. It was Melvyn Bragg (who I passed on the street yesterday in Hampstead as it happens - on more coincidence) and In our time. The subject was T S Eliot which did not make me twig at first but then one of the experts quoted the very lines I had read shortly before

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction 
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind.

You can read the whole thing here.