Each weekday morning I took my place amongst the jostling crowd at the bus stop. A mixed society of foreign language students, Muslim families, English and American tourists, mums laden with their drop down prams and nappy bags and the rest a mix of nine to fivers like myself. All of us routinely getting agitated as the bus was routinely late.

By the time it arrived the driver was usually in a right mood.Those who were not carrying the correct change or were not moving fast enough would hear about it.
“Move to the back of the bus! Hurry up! I don’t have all day!”
As seats quickly filled up the remaining passengers left standing scrambled to grasp straps and poles to cling to as the bus jerked and balked its way onto the highway. It was usually a nightmare journey of stop, start, screeching brakes and accompanying profanities which everyone was glad to see end.

Except for the days when Jonathan was driving the bus.
Jonathan wore a big Akubra hat and a permanent smile. He said good morning to everyone individually and had a kind word for all. He didn’t repay people in kind for their insulting remarks about being late but rather wished them well and apologized. Along the bus route he would point out local landmarks and tell people a little of the history of our town. He addressed everyone on the bus as though they were his little community and engaged them in conversation.

Many people were amazed by this as they had never experienced such friendly behaviour from a bus driver. There were of course some detractors who told him he should just be quiet and get on with the business of driving but most of the passengers responded warmly and the mood on the bus was greatly improved.

I wondered if Jonathan was a Christian. If anyone was shining a light for Jesus in the community he certainly was.
Then one day on the bus he asked the passengers a riddle. He said to them “Out of the eater came something to eat, out of the strong came something sweet.”
I thought, he’s quoting Samson from the Book of Judges.
No one else on the bus answered him so I called out, “honey from the lion.”
“You’ve read the Bible,” he responded. “ I have, I replied and left it at that for the moment.

A couple of months later I caught Jonathan’s bus home from work in the evening. It was packed out, standing room only.
As I climbed up the steps Jonathan smiled at me and said “You look really happy today! Must be a man in your life. Who is he?”
Right at that very instant I felt the presence of God and I didn’t know what was about to happen but I knew what I had to say,

“Jesus,” I smiled back at him.

In the background I could hear a mixture of shocked exclamations and laughter coming from the passengers. Jonathan looked at me for a moment ,a smile broadening on his face, then he reached into his pocket and took out a piece of paper. He handed it to me saying,

“take this and go sit down and have a read of it.”

When he said this there were no spare seats but some of the very people who had a moment ago been laughing now jumped up to offer me a seat.I sat down and unfolded the piece of paper. It was a scripture from 1^st Peter 3:12:

“For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

As I thanked him and returned the paper to him, we talked for a bit about our faith and I learned that he played keyboard in the worship team of his local church.

As I got off the bus I thought one way or the other many people on that bus would go home thinking about Jesus. I thanked God for men like Jonathan whom He had placed strategically in His service to create opportunities for witnessing so that ordinary people like me could be emboldened to share their faith in simple ways.