Christ Image Appears On Wooden Log[Original headline: Image of Jesus on log brings hope to family]
Donna Magallanes left the room where she was burning a fire in her Santa Fe home, off N.M. 14, on Sunday with her boyfriend. When she returned, she noticed the small image in a corner of one of the logs and pointed it out to her boyfriend.
It was the image of Jesus Christ.
Initially, Magallanes, 35, had not noticed the image, which is an outline of Jesus' hair, eyes, a beard and mustache and is a darker brown than the rest of the log.
"Nothing like this has ever happened to us," Tanya Houston, Magallanes' 40-year-old sister who is keeping the log at her house, told The New Mexican today. "I figure this is just a sign from God, and maybe all our worries will stop."
Near the log had been a piece of paper with Jesus' face on it. When Magallanes returned to the room and noticed the image on the log, she realized the paper with picture of Jesus on it had also changed.
"When she came back to the room, he had no face," says Houston, who describes herself as Christian and says she's religious. "She said she wouldn't have been so scared if the image wasn't gone. He (Magallanes' boyfriend) grabbed the paper, and he crumpled it up and threw it in the fireplace."
Magallanes gave the log, which is about 2 feet long, to her sister and mother Josie Lopez, after The Rev. John A. Flaska Jr., pastor of St. John The Baptist Catholic Church, blessed the log.
Houston says her sister has lost some of her memory because a live-in boyfriend almost beat her to death several months ago and is now living with a man who won't allow her to visit her sister and mother's house.
So Magallanes gave the log to her son who brought it over to her sister and mother's Santa Fe home Tuesday afternoon.
When Magallanes told her sister about the image, Houston said "she was almost in tears."
Houston said she hopes her sister takes the experience of seeing the image in the log as sign for her to leave the men that keep hurting her.
"God is trying to tell Donna something," Houston said, explaining that although her sister has a good job, she "knows there is something better for our family."
"Donna is the light of our family," Houston said, "except she's the only one who doesn't know it."
Houston has placed the log atop a white shelf that holds her videotape collection among several figures of angels, which she collects.
"This is gonna make my Christmas," Houston adds.
• Story originally published in •
The New Mexican, Santa Fe / NM | By Veronica Gonzalez + Sarah Van Cott - December 20 2000
[Original headline: Santa Fe family sees face of Jesus in fireplace log]
Donna Magallanes had returned from her kitchen a week ago when she realized a picture of Christ hanging above the fireplace in her living room had miraculously transferred itself to a log nearby.
"I went to the kitchen, and the picture of Jesus was on the wood," Magallanes said.
The log now contains an outline of what the 36-year-old Magallanes believes is Jesus' hair, eyes, beard and mustache. It is a darker brown than the rest of the log.
Magallanes said it appeared as if someone had thrown water on the picture of the Last Supper, which was hanging over her fireplace. She said her boyfriend threw the picture away.
"It's a blessing that (God is) telling me something," said Magallanes, the mother of three. "I believe that he's helping me out because everything has been going really well."
"Nothing like this has ever happened to us," said Tanya Houston, Magallanes' 40-year-old sister, who is keeping the log at her house. "I figure this is just a sign from God, and maybe all our worries will stop."
Magallanes gave the log, which is about 2 feet long, to her sister after the Rev. John A. Flaska Jr., pastor of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, blessed it.
Flaska said he blessed the log because he thought it contained something the family believed was the sacred face of Jesus. "If they were going to believe it to be the sacred face and ... would be inspired by that," Flaska said, "I blessed it."
Houston said a smooth part of the log was the "Valley" - the Valle Vista public housing where she lives. Houston said she could also make out an image of Jesus on a crucifix and angels.
Houston said her family has had a lot of problems. She said her sister has lost some of her memory because a boyfriend in California almost beat her to death several months ago.
"This guy beat me up really bad," Magallanes said, "and I came back. It's just something different.
"Donna is the light of our family except she is the only one that doesn't know it," Houston said.
Houston, who said she had trouble seeing the image at first, placed it atop a white shelf that holds her videotapes. Several figures of angels, which she collects, are nearby.
"This is gonna make my Christmas," Houston said.
• Story originally published in •
The New Mexican, Santa Fe / NM | By Veronica Gonzalez + Sarah Van Cott - December 21 2000
