There is one particular evening that will stand out in Carolyn’s mind forever. The evening when her husband was rounding a curve on a rural highway, with her in the passenger seat, and a disaster happened.
It was late, the night was indelible-ink black, and there was a large deer standing in the headlights, wearing that look of bewilderment on its face. Her husband’s reflexes kicked in and he jerked the wheel.
Bad idea.
The car lost traction and plunged through the flimsy guardrail, tearing down the steep embankment. The next thing Carolyn remembers is awaking upside down in her seat, suspended by a seatbelt, half conscious. Then she heard someone say her name.
“Carolyn.”
At first she thought it was her husband speaking. But when she opened her eyes she saw that he was unconscious.
And still, she kept hearing her name.
“Carolyn. Wake up.”
She turned to see a young man staring at her from behind the passenger window. He had scraggly facial hair, a plaid shirt, and a kind face.
“Come with me, Carolyn,” the young man said.
Then he lifted Carolyn and her husband out of the car and carried them both.
She doesn’t remember much after that except that, after a few minutes, she and her husband were both safely propped against a tree, waiting for ambulances, and the young man vanished.
The first responders asked Carolyn all the usual questions. Then they asked how she managed to muscle her heavy husband out of the vehicle. She told them it was the young man.
They looked at her like she was one short thigh short of a blue plate special.
“Ma’am, there’s nobody on this highway,” they said.
Here’s another one I heard. This story came to me from a young man who I’ll call Jeremy, from Kansas.
Jeremy was babysitting his infant daughter one night while his wife was away at work. Jeremy had just put the child down for a long nap when he heard someone call him from down the hall. It was a man’s voice.
The voice whispered, “Help your daughter.”
That was all the voice said. At first Jeremy thought the voice was just his imagination, but it continued.
So he sprang to his feet and rushed into his daughter’s bedroom to find that she had fallen from her crib and wedged herself between the wall and bed. She was suffocating.
But here’s the thing: the girl survived. And it was all because of a voice.
Or how about the woman in Oregon who sent me a letter about how she once lived in a fifth-wheel camper with her two kids. She had fallen on hard times, her husband was out of the picture, and the camper was parked on her brother’s acreage.
One night, the woman was jostled awake by an unseen hand, gripping her shoulder.
“Get up,” said the unseen person. “Get your kids out of here.”
Then, almost as if on cue, she smelled something strong. Propane. She wandered dizzily into the kitchen and found that one of her dogs had jumped on the stove and turned the gas knob. The camper was inundated with heavy fumes and her children were asleep.
This is how people die in campers.
But not her family, and not that fateful night. She rushed her kids from the camper and thankfully, nobody was hurt.
And I’m just getting warmed up.
My last story comes from a guy in east Texas. He was on his way home one evening when he noticed an older man and woman on the side of the highway, pushing a shopping cart, carrying large backpacks. The man and woman looked as though they had slept in the same clothes since the Kennedy administration.
The young man pulled over and asked if they needed a ride. The two vagrants gladly accepted. And, just as the young man was about to drop them off at a truckstop, the old woman looked at him and said, “Have you checked on your mom lately?”
“What?” he replied.
She repeated, and added, “Your mom. Call her.”
The young man used a payphone to call his mother only to have his dad answer the phone, who told him that his mother had just had a heart attack and was on her way to ICU.
The young man could hardly believe this. When he looked for the elderly couple at the truckstop to thank them, he could not find them. And nobody nearby had seen anyone matching their description.
I’m going to level with you. I get a lot of stories like this sent to my inbox. And truthfully, I never know who is behind the keyboard, sending me these anecdotes. In all honesty, sometimes I don’t know whether I believe all angel stories. Sometimes, I’m too skeptical. Sometimes I’m too much of a realist. And if I’m being even more honest with you, sometimes I don’t have that much faith at all.
But then, as I understand things, a well-known individual once said that it doesn’t take much.
62 comments
Karen Erwin-Brown - October 1, 2021 7:35 am
hair on my arms still standing up
Tawanah Fagan Bagwell - October 1, 2021 8:30 am
Wow!
Leigh Amiot - October 1, 2021 9:59 am
I believe!
Susie - October 1, 2021 10:19 am
Yes, Sean, I don’t believe most of these stories myself, although I believe some are probably true, to some degree. But I do think many are made up just to prove a point for their side. There are a lot of scammers out there with nothing better to do. Also a lot of gullible people, since the beginning of time. But, hey, if it gives someone hope, I guess that’s all that counts. Tho, what scares me the most……..is mass delusion. I think it causes lazy people to not to think, and therefore, not to act on their own behalf, which I think is propagated by cons for whatever reason, and the reason is usually $$. A good case in point is what is happening in this country; beware, people, and use you head. Don’t fall for everything you hear. We DESPERATELY NEED MODERATION. Keep writing, Sean, you’re the man!! I LOVE the REALIST side of you! GOOD to have two sides in one head!! i.e., CERTITUDE in one’s head is VERY LIMITING!! You go, Sean.
Steve McCaleb - October 1, 2021 10:20 am
The title of your story says it all. What a friend we have.
BJ - October 1, 2021 11:16 am
What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear… I don’t think we realize all the times He saves us from disaster!
Te - October 1, 2021 10:27 am
There are things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Shakespeare.
Te - October 1, 2021 10:29 am
More things. Darn auto correct!
Liz - October 1, 2021 10:37 am
❤️
Debbie - October 1, 2021 10:39 am
Yes, Sean….faith as small as a mustard seed….
Sonya Tuttle - October 1, 2021 11:28 am
Sean, I recall that it happened to you as well. You wrote about it ages ago. Angels are all around. Praise our Heavenly Father for this!!
Jody Ann - October 1, 2021 11:48 am
Believe it, Sean! Angels are for real.!!
bj - October 1, 2021 1:36 pm
It was late at night 25+ years ago when the car our daughter was passenger in was broadsided on her side and knocked into gas pumps that burst into flames. The driver and other passenger were able to get out but our daughter was pinned in from collision and her seat belt wouldn’t open. There were flames outside her window and she was struggling when a man in a plaid shirt leaned in the other side and told he was there to get her out. He then cut the seat belt and pulled her out to safety. When police and others arrived, he was nowhere around. Our daughter had some broken bones, collapsed lung and bad burns on her leg but she survived and is a beautiful woman today. No one will ever convince us that God didn’t send an angel to her that night!!
STEVE MOORE WATKINS - October 1, 2021 8:32 pm
Amen.
Elizabeth LeDuc - October 1, 2021 12:03 pm
The Bible tells us angels are real. Thank you for sharing.
Paul McCutchen - October 1, 2021 12:03 pm
Sometimes you just have to believe.
Susie - October 1, 2021 7:10 pm
No, Paul, not really. Not if ya can’t QUITE swallow it. That’s where the “thinking” part come in. Having faith might be satisfying and comforting for you, but for me, I have doubts, because I DO THINK and I DO QUESTION stuff. DOUBT is not the opposite of FAITH. DOUBT is first cousin to FAITH. THE OPPOSITE OF FAITH…..IS CERTITUDE. Hey, each to his own, right!? Freedom OF religion INCLUDES freedom FROM religion, last time I checked. I do, however, believe in the golden rule. THAT ONE is good enough for me! 👍🤗
Karen - October 1, 2021 12:09 pm
Miracles can happen.
David - October 1, 2021 12:29 pm
I’m reading this a few days after having been part of a similar such incident myself. I have a very dear, very close friend who lives more than 1,000 miles away. we have always had one of those close connections where we might go to college each other at the same time or some such. But the other day, it was very early in the morning, I was washing dishes, getting ready for work, basically puttering around when I had a very powerful, fear-filled urge to call her. Before I could even decide to I was dialing her number. I heard the click of her picking up and, before she even could say anything, I blurted out, “What’s wrong, are you OK?!”
She was actually on the side of the road ready to take her own life. She’d had a series of increasingly difficult incidents, personal and financial, compiling rapidly and just felt she could not handle it anymore. After talking her “off the ledge,” I worked with her to help handle each problem that I could, reassured her that I am always there to help, and have been checking with her since and I think she’s going to be OK. I pray she will. But what stirred that first call was nothing identifiable in the physical world. There absolutely is more out there than we tend to give credit for. Thankfully.
Susie - October 1, 2021 6:53 pm
David, you were her “angel”, no doubt. No wings, just someone who cares. Please do, tho, encourage her to seek professional help ALSO. Sometimes your help and prayers won’t do it alone; it would be foolish to think it would. Even offer to go with her for a first visit, if possible. What a WONDERFUL friend you are, David!! Wow
Jo Ann - October 1, 2021 12:31 pm
I love stories like this. Thanks for sharing, Sean.
Sarah - October 1, 2021 12:51 pm
Please keep passing these stories on to us, your readers. Whether factual or not, what matters to me is that they cause me to stop a moment and think, just think.
Susie - October 1, 2021 6:43 pm
That’s good, Sarah, that you keep up with the thinking part to go along with your kind heart. I only wish more people would THINK for themselves, too, instead of believing everything someone tells them. After all, if god exists and gave us a brain, perhaps we should use it??
Stacey Wallace - October 1, 2021 1:04 pm
Thank you for a wonderful story as usual, Sean. Also, you have way more faith than you realize.
Jan - October 1, 2021 1:10 pm
Love these stories. I believe. God is real and He is good. Sometimes He sends angels when we need them!
Nick - October 1, 2021 1:24 pm
Sean, we all have guardian angels! As one of my favorite “saints to be” said, Don’t run faster than your guardian angel!
Nancy Crews - October 1, 2021 1:25 pm
❤your writing. Angels everywhere.
dapeek43 - October 1, 2021 1:31 pm
Angels are real! I believe!❤️
Mary - October 1, 2021 2:05 pm
Two weeks ago in Laguna Beach, FL at a Christian Retreat Center (close to you), a lady was teaching a Bible study and saw just the top of a little head go by the window. She continued teaching, but then she heard that still, small voice saying “something isn’t right”. So she stopped teaching, telling the ladies she needed to check on something. As she ran out the front door of the condo, she saw my 20 month old grandson about a car length from busy Hwy 98. As she went toward him, he thought it was a game, he ran from her (closer to the road). She screamed and scared him enough for him to stop, and he started crying. She grabbed him up, held him close and took him to the back deck of the house where two of his aunts hadn’t even noticed he had wandered off. Divine intervention? I certainly believe that. And I am thanking my Heavenly Father every. single. day!
Pinny Bugaeff - October 1, 2021 2:37 pm
Hi Sean I Saw an Angel…
When I was five,my great-grandmother, Gan, who lived with us- died. i was heartbroken. About a week after she died,I was jumping down the long winding stairs in our Victorian house.-I was also sucking on a green Lifesaver. And then, on my next to last jump, I inhaled and the Lifesaver,(ironically Lifesavers were designed to be just the size of a child’s throat) Anyway, the Lifesaver lodged in my windpipe and I couldn’t breath, Soon I slumped down on the step. My vision narrowed and then, I saw a distant light and in that light was Gan. She flew towards me and next thing I knew I felt a tremendous whack on my back and the green Lifesaver shot out of my throat and landed on the floor.
I sat for a minute, catching my breath, hoping that Gan had come back to stay.
I ran into the kitchen to tell my mother about the Lifesaver and that Gan had saved me. And ,as you might imagine, I got some “there, there’ kind of pats on the head and some parental canned talk about “Gan’s in heaven now. and blah, blah, blah. “I know, I said, “But, she just came to save me.” i could tell my mother wasn’t buying it and after a few more there,theres I sat down and ate my oatmeal. But i knew from that day that there is a heaven and angels are real and someday I’ll see Gan again.
Tammy S. - October 1, 2021 2:41 pm
Faith of a mustard seed! ⛰
Perfect ending!!
Rikki - October 1, 2021 3:36 pm
Beautiful Sean!!!!! Here’s my story in the same vein. About 3 months after my husband passed away I drove out to see my little granddaughter. The drive was 30 minutes each way, some of it very dark, new roads. They lived in a new community that was being developed and animals were being displaced. On my return home my cell began to ring. I glanced at it and saw it was my cousin the doctor, the one who had helped me through my husband’s illness. As I reached for the phone to answer I saw it at the last second, a deer, leaping from the shadows right in front of me and leaping again to safety on the other side of the dark street. I hit my brake, he leapt and was gone but I had only missed him by inches I think. The momentum of the car moving forward had been lessened by my attempt to answer the phone. Had I continued at the same speed I would have hit him. I had backed off the gas pedal just a bit and slowed my speed, then saw the deer, braked and then realizing I had escaped a very harrowing moment, I started back up on my trip home, heart pounding. When I arrived at an intersection and it was safe to dial her, I called my cousin back only to hear her say, ” I didn’t call you.” To this day I know it was my husband sitting in the passenger seat watching, knowing, and saying, “Slow down, there’s a deer up ahead”. I didn’t hear the voice so He did the next thing and rang my phone, knowing I would be compelled to answer HER call because of all the people who had been part of my husband’s illness and death, she was the one I could get the straight answers from regarding everything. I still always answer her calls, 14 years later. Family.
Patti - October 1, 2021 4:12 pm
Keep it up! Anything that points to Jesus is golden.
Linda Moon - October 1, 2021 4:30 pm
I’m honest with you, always, and share the same faith dilemma with you, sometimes. I had a tap-tap-tap on my shoulder as I was sleeping a long time ago. It was not from the human being lying next to me, and there was a good reason for the three taps that awakened me quickly. There’s a reason for the Well-Known Individual, too, who has said a lot to us mere mortals. We’ll understand it all, even strange stories, when the gathering morning comes.
diane h. toney - October 1, 2021 5:03 pm
Would appreciate your taking 2 minutes to read my last blog entry, ANGELS UNAWARES, wordsfromwoods.com. I think you would appreciate same story from a different perspective. Thank you for you insights.
Susie - October 1, 2021 7:24 pm
I read it, Diane. I agree, many “angels” out there. Some of the greatest one are the Hospice nurses and volunteers. They are DEFINITELY “angels” on Earth. 👍👍
Patricia Schmaltz - October 1, 2021 5:15 pm
I believe. God sends us angels all the time. Like YOU!
Larry Wall - October 1, 2021 5:40 pm
Well, I haven’t had a provable encounter that I can recount to you at this moment but, with the careless and sometimes carefree life that I have lived in my 75 years, I have had many incidents. When I looked back at how I escaped near calamities in some of those incidents, I am compelled to believe someone special had a hand in those escapes. I have always heard the GOD takes care of fools and drunks. HE likely does much of this through HIS angels. They must be awfully busy.
Christina - October 1, 2021 5:48 pm
Those with a bit of faith will see the beautiful divine “coincidences”.
Susie - October 1, 2021 8:10 pm
Christina, some believe in divine interventions and some believe in coincidences. While it may be exciting to believe divine intervention saved the Bible on the lecturn of the Catholic Cathedral Notre Dame in Paris, France from that horrible fire a couple of years ago, if one would consider (think) that the structure of a book, with its pages tightly pressed and lain together, would most likely not allow enough oxygen in to “feed” a fire, especially in between the right pages, one might conclude otherwise, such as a nice coincidence, perhaps. And when I consider that tens of thousands of children die every year from drought, starvation, wars and disease, with no divine intervention whatsoever, well….I’m sorry……but a holy relic surviving a fire JUST DOESNT COUNT with me. Just saying….again, each to his/her own beliefs….and whatever gets you thru, hey, more power to you.
Susie - October 1, 2021 8:13 pm
Correction on my last post…that was supposed to say “TIGHT “pages.
Anne Swinson Godwin - October 1, 2021 6:10 pm
There are angels among us.
Edna H. Isdell - October 1, 2021 6:25 pm
I am still waiting for a mailing address to send you your Atlanta Braves quilt. A free gift from me.
Pat in WNY - October 1, 2021 6:46 pm
If each of us had one grain of mustard seed in our hearts, what a wonderful world this would be!
chip plyler - October 1, 2021 6:59 pm
Matthew 17:20 …
Carmen Manning Robinson - October 1, 2021 7:38 pm
These little stories give me chills. I do believe there are angels amongst us. Thanks for sharing, Sean!!
MAM - October 1, 2021 8:00 pm
We must believe in God, Jesus and angels, and we must convince others that they are real, even if not seen, if we want this world to turn around from its fallen ways. We must have FAITH in God that he will take care of us. I try every day in my own weak way. Sean, you are a reminder of all things good! Keep it up!
Susie - October 1, 2021 8:23 pm
If everyone would just apply the golden rule, you wouldn’t have to force or “convince” others to see it your way. Easy, peasy….each to his own beliefs, Mam. ☺️ Pushiness is not the way……it’s a turn-off
Robin H Williams - October 1, 2021 8:21 pm
Angels walk among us. You’re one too, whether you know it or not
I’ve known some angels who were pure fools.
I think they just graduated from angel school, but they meant well.
May your angels be around you
Peggy ALEXANDER - October 1, 2021 11:33 pm
Susie, Do you believe in God????
Susie - October 2, 2021 7:56 pm
Oh, you picked up on that! Peggy, not really. But, it’s ok, Peggy. It should be ok with you that I don’t, because I think it’s ok that you do. 🤗 Like I keep saying, each to his own beliefs. 👍
Joann Thompson - October 2, 2021 3:10 am
I often think that we are living in a parallel world, and sometimes they help us out. Call them what you want. I’ve never experienced it to such a degree as these people have, but my son tells me about being moved out of a busy street after he had been hit by a car…by his grandfather who had died several years before.
Toni Adcock - October 2, 2021 1:09 pm
Randy Owen sings about it. “I believe there are angels among us.”
Debbie Schmidt - October 2, 2021 1:10 pm
When my children were small we were vacationing with another family and all four children were sleeping in one bedroom. In the middle of the night I was awaken by a voice inside my head that said, “Go to the children’s room now”.
The second I crossed the threshold to the room where the children were sleeping a cloth that had been placed on top of a lamp ignited in flames. I removed the cloth, put out the flames and went back to sleep.
Roxanne - October 2, 2021 4:28 pm
I don’t believe every angel story I hear, but I do believe they happen. I’ve experienced and witnessed the experience as it unfolds too many times to believe anything else. Let that mustard-seed-faith flourish
Susie - October 2, 2021 8:04 pm
Roxanne, that’s IT. Experience, but THINK, also, along the way, too!! THANK YOU, Roxanne, for not getting fanatical. You are my kind of people. ❤️
Kathy - October 2, 2021 5:57 pm
I know where you’re coming from. I never know what to say when I hear one of these stories. But I listen and I pay attention.
Susie - October 2, 2021 8:08 pm
That’s good, Kathy, to listen, to pay attention, sift out the hype and draw your OWN conclusions. At least, YOURE THINKING. Atta gal!! 👍☺️
Sally Edwards - October 3, 2021 12:02 am
I absolutely believe because I have witnessed it. I have a desperate prayer I’m asking to be forwarded from a nineteen year old. “ I recently have undergone a serious life changing event and now I’m in the midst of a legal battle. My family and I need prayers for peace and strength as we proceed through all of the legalities.” This is not just a legal battle …. It is as serious as they come. When we get permission we may reveal why this prayer is so desperate. Thank you for your prayers.🙏🙏😉 XOXO Alabama YaYa 😘😘😘
Gayle Wilson - October 5, 2021 2:31 pm
Ecclesiates 3:11 God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, BUT EVEN SO PEOPLE CANNOT SEE THE WHOLE SCOPE OF GOD’S WORK FROM BEGINNING TO END. Emphasis mine, however I think HE has emphasized this since the beginning – the whole scope of His work. He would not be worthy of our worship if He could be understood by our finite, minuscule minds.
Jaxon - October 6, 2021 1:37 am
My mother had just put her first little niece to sleep and had gently laid her in the crib at Grandma’s house. She wasn’t even a year old and had already stolen all her young Aunties’ hearts. The year was 1973… and cribs are made different now than they were back then. (thankfully) She was helping her mother with the daily duties, when she got a very strong feeling that she needed to check on the little girl ASAP. She ran down the hallway and opened the bedroom door. Here was baby Lynnette hanging from the side of the crib with her head stuck in the vertical part of the crib rails. She rescued her little niece and all was well. She fully believes that God sent that urgent message to her.
Another time, my younger sister had gone to Alberta to visit friends. She was gone a few days and at one point during that time I felt an urgent need to pray for her safety, which I did and then kinda forgot about it. A while after she’d come back home, she told us that her and her friends had been turning off their driveway onto a gravel road where trucks were busy hauling more gravel for a big road project. The young driver thought the road was clear and was turning onto the road when she happened to look left again and saw this big gravel truck barreling down the road right towards them. She stopped instantly and the truck roared by, there was no way he could’ve stopped in time if she had kept driving onto the road. After she told us this story, my mom looked at her and asked, “what day was that?” My sister told her which day and also that it had happened in the afternoon around such and such a time. Mom told her, “That’s exactly the time and date that I felt very strongly that I needed to pray for your safety!” Well, then it was my turn to share how I had had the exact same feelings at the exact same time and date. I’m so thankful that God is omnipresent and cares about the smallest details of our lives. One thing we need to also remember, is that he can hear our faintest whispers, when we don’t know how to pray or where to go with our troubled hearts. May God bless you all…
Rhonda - October 6, 2021 2:29 pm
Not believing in something doesn’t mean it isn’t real.
Even the devil.
Angels have full time work.
Different assignments.
You will have yours one day