I have always been a deeply spiritual person, and I am a big believer in signs. I believe that God sends signs of encouragement and affirmation from Heaven, and I believe that signs are different for everyone. I also believe that our loved ones send us signs from Heaven that they’re still around, watching over us through our lives.
My dad was a HUGE baseball fan, and his favorite team was the St. Louis Cardinals. After he passed away in 2017, I suddenly started seeing cardinals everywhere; it happened so often it became impossible to ignore. One of my favorite instances of this happening was one day when I was driving home from work, in tears over the stress in my life at the time, and praying to God for a sign that everything was going to be alright. A few miles down the road, a whole flock of cardinals flew out of the bushes on the side of the road, crossing in front of me. I knew in my heart that not only was God telling me it was going to be ok, but my dad was telling me he was with me and I wasn’t alone.
Things like that have also happened to me many times since my mom died in 2021, except with Mom it’s usually butterflies. My mom’s purse was printed with a butterfly pattern, and she had several pieces of clothing with butterflies on it. After she passed, my kids and I would see butterflies more often than we ever had before, and the kids and I always said “Look, it’s Mamaw!” My youngest daughter even pointed out butterflies so often her friends began to say “Your Mamaw’s here!” when they’d see butterflies, too.
When I moved to Tennessee in late 2024, the rental I found was surrounded on two sides by wooded area. As time went on, I began to see a plethora of birds, animals, and butterflies- all of which I found so comforting. After moving to Tennessee, I felt so alone; most of my family and friends were back in Missouri, and I struggled to find friends in an area where it seemed like everyone already had their cliques. This was only magnified after July of 2025, when my ex-husband took me to court for custody of my son and won, leaving me alone in a place where I already felt like an outsider. I can’t begin to tell you how many tears I cried through 2025… it was definitely the worst year of my life, but even though I was walking through my own personal Hell, there were points of light. Suddenly the presence of birds, butterflies, and animals was overwhelming when I’d go outside, and while it was odd sometimes to walk outside and find 8 rabbits hopping around near the trees, or butterflies flitting around as I sat on my back deck, it was also beautiful and comforting.
Recently during the winter storm of 2026, I was deeply worried I would lose power. I was prepared with plenty of food and supplies, but my rental is all electric, so I constantly prayed that I wouldn’t lose power. Since I have dysautonomia, I can’t handle long periods of time in extreme temperatures, and I was worried about what might happen if I lost power and heat. God not only answered that prayer, but He sent signs to let me know I was being protected. I saw male and female cardinals all around my house nearly every day I looked outside. I’d see them sitting on the posts that mark the edge of the property, sitting in the trees around the house, and even on the window ledge right outside my living room window. It was so comforting, and made me feel like that was God’s (and my parents’) way of saying “Don’t worry… we got you!”
Signs don’t always come in the form of animals, though… There are many cases across history where people have begun noticing things like feathers or coins around more frequently. Right after my dad passed away, we would often find dimes laying around in weird places. My mom was actually the first person to point it out to me, and after she pointed it out, I began seeing them a lot more. When my Dad was alive, he collected change and rolled it up to cash in. I feel like the dimes were a way to get our attention to let us know he was still with us. These days I see way more Cardinals than dimes in random places, but if I do find a dime in a weird spot- such as on top of a gas pump or balanced vertically on a baseboard in a restroom (true story!!), I have no doubt it’s Dad saying hey.
Another sign I’ve noticed a lot over the last few years is angel numbers. Angel numbers are are number sequences (usually three or four numbers) that contain repetition (such as 111 or 4444) and/or patterns (such as 321 or 8787), and are believed to be messages from the spiritual universe that offer insight, wisdom, and guidance. It often happens to me these days that I’ll be in the middle of doing something and all of a sudden when I get the urge to check the clock, it reads numbers like 11:11 or 2:22. When I first started noticing them, I wondered why all of a sudden I was seeing them everywhere and a friend told me “the more you believe, the more signs you see”. I think this is true… I don’t ever remember seeing angel numbers as much as I have since my parents passed away. After my dad passed away and definitely after my mom passed away, I dove deep into spirituality to help me cope with the pain and grief. As I have gotten closer to God, I have noticed more signs of the spiritual world in my life. It’s pretty amazing. ♥
I don’t share these experiences to be preachy; I’m well aware that there are people out there who do not believe in God, or in Heaven and Hell, and I’m not trying to push my beliefs on others. I’m also aware that there are those who may read this and mock my spirituality and beliefs, calling me crazy or stupid to believe what I do and chalking all this up to coincidence. However, I strongly believe there are no coincidences in life, and everyone we meet and everything we go through in life has its purpose. I have experienced enough in my life to know without a doubt that God is real, and Heaven and Hell are real. That being said, I also know that most people are not going to believe that miraculous things can happen until they experience it for themselves, and so I tend to keep most of the experiences I’ve had to myself until someone asks me about them.
If you’re reading this, thinking “there is no way this is true”, I encourage you keep an open mind. You know that saying “God works in mysterious ways”?? It’s true. The way God connects with one person is not the same as how He connects with another, so the signs He may place in your path may be very different from the signs He places in mine or someone else’s. Even Mark 16:17 says “And these signs will follow those who believe…”
