I was visiting a relative last week; I'll call her my sister just for the sake of this story. (Her real identity and location are kept a secret to protect her privacy and preserve this sacred treasure.) While sipping a hot cup of coffee and nibbling on a delicious home-made scone, I looked down and gasped; my eyes began to fill with tears, and my whole being was filled with long suppressed emotions of wonder and joy. There in a tile on her floor was Jesus looking back at me with a look of compassion, that took my breath away.

"What's wrong? Are you choking on my scones? my sister asked. I tried to reply, but was overcome by floods of feelings, that made me unable to answer. Before I could catch my voice, I felt such pressure and pain in my chest, that I thought I would pass out. I jumped away from the arms holding me in a vice like grip and shouted in anger, "What is the big idea?"

"Oh, you scared me, I thought you were choking, so I gave you the Heimlich maneuver!" my sister shouted back defensively. I was regaining my composure and pointed to the sacred tile in the floor. "Have you seen this tile?" I asked in awe struck wonder.

Her nonchalant reply took my by surprise, "Oh! yeah! that tile, it's really cool, We all think it is Willie Nelson." I gave her the most withering look I could muster. "That is a sacrilege, this tile is obviously Jesus," I barked back in shock at her complete insensitivity, "and you call yourself a Christian?"

We went back and forth for a while about this tile, when her husband walked in. He looked at the source of our discussion and scratched his chin. "You know we could probably dig this out of the floor and sell it on EBay for a bunch of money," he said in his usual thoughtful manner.

I was just about to shout, "Blasphemy!" when the doorbell rang. "Oh, that's Kathy," my sister bubbled, "Let's see what she thinks." She ran to the door to let Kathy in.

"That coffee smells so good!" Kathy cried out as she gave my sister a big hug. "So - you made gluten free scones! Now that I have to try," she said as they both scrambled toward the kitchen. "These scones are delicious! I can't believe you made them without flour," my sister did not reply with a thank you, instead she directed her to stand in front of this precious spiritual gift that was tiled into her floor.

I held out my hand for her to stop. "Kathy, look down at your feet and tell me what you see," I commanded. Kathy looked down for a while, and then looked back up at me with a confused expression. "Uh, it's a slate floor," she paused then added, "a real pretty slate floor."

"Aren't you a Catholic, Kathy?" I asked, "Look down again and tell me what you see."

"Um, Yes, I am a Catholic," she replied hesitantly as her gaze once more returned to the sacred object. Her hand holding the coffee cup began to shake, tears began to run down her cheeks and she started making sobbing sounds; then she dropped to her knees, in front of the Jesus tile. Kathy didn't speak a word for a while, then she slowly rose, "It's the Virgin Mother; and she smiled at me," was all she could say. She set down her coffee cup and slowly walked out toward the front door, Kathy's face was radiant.

My sister ran and met her at the door. "Are you alright Kathy?" she asked. Kathy just smiled back and said, "Mary healed me. I have been depressed for a long time and it's all gone, just like that." Kathy snapped her fingers, "It's a real miracle."

My sister walked back into the kitchen shaking her head. "Wow! we're going to be rich!" her husband stated.

My sister emailed me a picture of the tile, and I ran it through some different filters to see if it is Jesus, Willie Nelson or Mary. Look carefully at the different scans and make up your own mind. I'm sure you will all agree with me, that it is Jesus. I don't think it could be possible, that it is just an unusually shaped, split piece of stone.

The identities of all those involved have been changed to protect this icon. I could just see people coming from Portugal, Spain and France on a sacred pilgrimage to view this natural portrait of Jesus in stone. The lines of pilgrims, crawling on their hands and knees to view this miraculous site, would cause havoc with local traffic patterns and disrupt the lives of nearby neighbors, not to mention my sister and her family would be inundated with pilgrims and the press.