'Painted by God himself'

LAS VEGAS, NM - A year after her son's death, Jean Padilla of Oregon found comfort in a rock her son found 30 years ago.

This just isn't any old rock.

Scientists are actually calling it a natural phenomenon.

"He was with a group of friends," Padilla recalls. "He set up some cans for target practicing. He said he picked up the rock and went to throw it, and something told him to look at it."

When her son did, who was 10 years old at the time, spotted what he believed to be an image of Jesus Christ.

"I knew it was something special," she said. "I always knew it was something special, and I always believed it was the face of Christ painted by God himself."

Padilla said her son found the rock in Las Vegas, NM, about 60 miles east of Santa Fe. At first she thought it was just an old Indian artifact, but she felt it was something more.

So she decided to get a second opinion from an archeology professor at a nearby college, as well as a geologist.

“An archeology professor there at the university examined it and said no that it was not in fact an artifact," Padilla said. "It was not carved, not by man anyhow. He said it was a natural phenomenon.”

When her son grew up, she gave him the rock to take with him. In 2008, a few months before Christmas, he gave the rock back to her.

“About three months before he died, he brought it back to me and said. 'Ma, you keep it.' And he died three months later on Christmas day."

Padilla keeps the sandstone rock and a picture of her son posted on her store wall. She says hundreds have looked at it and immediately said it was Jesus.

During this difficult time of year, she goes to the rock that gives her a feeling of peace.

“Why God chose him to find it, I don't know," she said. "I don't question that, but God definitely chose him.”