Aren’t coincidences a funny thing?

Dictionary definition:

a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection.
I know some Christians will get all up in arms and say “there’s no such thing as coincidences” but I think those who say that have a different understanding of the word than I do. If what we mean by “coincidence” is “something peculiar that happens, which connects to another–seemingly–separate event” then there’s nothing unBiblical about that.
.
Some will argue “that leaves out the Providence of God” or “that forgets about the guiding hand of God in our lives!” But of course it doesn’t; coincidences are about what SEEMS random. Such things have no APPARENT connection. Perhaps there is one and we just don’t know it.
 .
Having said that, man has free will, and sometimes me and a person I’ve not seen in long time happen to run in to each other in line at the movie theater, just as I also was talking to a mutual friend of ours on the phone. “What a coincidence” I would say; because what else is there to say?
 .
No matter how strange the coincidence, it does not change the fact that God is Soverign, in control, and may have a special reason for whatever seemingly random crazy things happen to us.
 But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.
Psalm 115:3
On the other hand, sometimes life is just screwy…
.
While out to eat in Italy, King Umberto I went to a small restaurant for dinner. When the waiter took Umberto’s order, the King noticed that he and the waiter looked almost exactly alike. Their faces were the same, their body shape was the same. They started talking more and realized the “coincidence” didn’t stop there:
.
1. Both men had the EXACT same birthday (March 14th, 1844).

2. Both men were born in the EXACT same town.
3. Both men married a woman with the EXACT same name, Margherita.
4. The waiter, who also owned the restaurant opened his shop on the same EXACT same day that Umberto was crowned King of Italy.
5. Later, on the July 29th, 1900, King Umberto was informed that the waiter/owner had died that day in a mysterious shooting accident. As he expressed his regret, Umberto was suddenly shot and killed by an anarchist in the crowd.

weird.