Jesus of the Tree Rings: Christ or King Ramses?

An "image of Jesus" has popped up again, this time in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. It showed up on a slab of wood in the possession of a furniture maker:

Jesus Image Found In Tree Log

A Bensalem furniture maker says he's found a holy item and he's been taking care of it religiously. Craig O'Connor has a block of wood that he chopped from a pine tree. On it, is an image of a Jesus-like figure with its arms outstretched. The tree rings form a kind of halo around the figure's head.

"I was just covered in goose bumps," said O'Connor as he reminisced about his find...

...O'Connor is a Catholic and believes it's a sign from God. When asked what the message is, he replied that it's like Jesus saying, "Believe in me. I'm still here. Have faith in me." O'Connor says finding the image has helped his faith...

"I put it on eBay one time as a joke to see if I got any offers," said O'Connor. " I got two offers, one for $500..."

When I saw the image, the first thing that came to mind for me wasn't Jesus but a cartoon called Courage the Cowardly Dog. Here's a side-by-side comparison of the image in the hunk of wood and that cartoon:

You can watch the episode, The Curse of King Ramses, online. It's one of the better episodes of the show.

This Daily Jesus follows the pattern seen in so many others. It's always found by a believer and then shown around having already been identified by that person. The claim is made in almost every case that it's a "message from God" that improves or enlarges the pre-existing belief. As in so many other cases, it's then put up for auction on eBay. In this case, the finder claims that he did so as a joke. Maybe I'm a bit slow today, but why would this be funny? Ha ha ha... I got a couple of offers but the highest was only $500, so I reneged. Hilarious.

Bumpy woodworkers aside, here's what I think; O'Connor put the item up for sale on eBay and didn't get as much money as he wanted for it. In keeping with his faith, he backed out of the deal and will now make the thing into a piece of furniture that he'll sell for several times the price he'd get for the same piece of furniture without a purported image of Jesus on it. I wouldn't be surprised if he were to slice the log up into several thin sections and sell each of them in this manner, thus increasing his income substantially.

On the other hand, he'd better be careful. If this image really is one of King Ramses, the Man in Gauze, he'd better return the slab lest his house be eaten by locusts. It's all right there in the cartoon.

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