Acquaintance or Friend?

I was sitting alone in the Cannon Center last Sunday, eating my wonderfully delicious (although artery clogging) food, when a random guy came up to my table and asked if he could join me. Instantly I realized that he looked familiar, and after we chatted a bit, he confessed that he recognized me from somewhere but didn't know where. I thought for a couple of seconds, then said, "Were you ever a TA for..."
"Physical Science?" he interrupted. "Yes."
"That's it," I replied. What makes this story unique is the fact that I had taken Physical Science my first semester of college, almost two years earlier. In addition, I only went to his TA lab session four or five times (the session was held Monday nights at 6:30, which conflicted with my Family Home Evening "Pa" calling) and I had never once talked to the guy. For him to recognize me, just one student out of hundreds of other past students, completely blew me away.
Another story: my second semester of college, I was working as an early morning custodian at the Smoot Administration Building at BYU. I would wake up every morning at 5:00 in order to catch the 5:42 bus to campus. There weren't very many other people that would catch the bus that early, so I quickly began to notice that the same girl would be at the bus stop every Thursday. We began talking and soon I began to look forward to Thursdays, if only because I knew that I would be greeted with an enthusiastic, smiling face. As the school year came to a close and I moved home for the summer, I didn't think anymore of the girl named Sarah; she had become just another acquaintance that I had made and would probably never see again.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago: I was sitting at the Helaman Halls front desk, sorting through the mail and thinking that it would be just another day, when up walked a young woman. I recognized her instantly and I could tell that she recognized me too, although I couldn't remember her name (just for the record, I was wearing my nametag). It took me the rest of the day to remember how I knew her... and guess how. Yep, she was the same Sarah that I had seen every Thursday over a year ago. Now she is the female "head sport's camp counselor" and I see her almost every day.
Either I'm just really popular or have a talent for remembering faces (probably the latter), but it seems like occurrences like these two stories happen quite often. I've really been thinking about it recently and I almost wonder if the Lord nudges people into our path to help us along our path to eternal progression; I'm not talking about family and good friends: of course those people have been brought into our lives by the hand of the Lord. But rather, I'm talking about the random acquaintances that are only in our lives for a short amount of time. I can't even count the number of times that I have walked out of the Testing Center and ran into an old classmate that I haven't seen in months, providing me with a much needed self-esteem boost. Or the "best friends" who have helped me through a difficult period of my life, yet now I haven't heard from them in well over a year.
It amazes me how much of a role the Lord actually plays in my life. He seems to make everything fit together so smoothly and seamlessly. Truly He can see the bigger picture while I can only see the day to day things. Just kind of an interesting thought.