DALLAS, TEXAS (ANS) -- Some people think it’s far from being an ordinary granite slab.

According to a story by Dan McGraw in the Dallas Morning News, John Ganster has watched cars slow to a crawl and even park in front of his East Dallas stone company as drivers attempt to get a look at the granite slab stained with what some think is an image of Jesus.

“Some customers and people have just wanted to take a look for themselves,” Ganster, a co-owner of Verona Marble Company, told the Dallas Morning News.

At first, no one at the company noticed the image, Ganster told the Dallas Morning News. Then he said a customer called and asked about buying what he called the “Jesus slab,” a 1,000-pound hunk of granite that comes from Brazil.

“We said, ‘What are you talking about?’” the Dallas Morning News reported Ganster said. “We went to see for ourselves.”

The stone had been in the company's Tulsa, Okla., store. It was moved to the Dallas office in December, after builders in the Tulsa area kept passing on it because of cosmetic imperfections.

“That's kind of ironic,”Ganster told the Dallas Morning News. “Christ said that he would build his church on the stone that the builders rejected.”

The Dallas Morning News said the company has received a number of offers for the slab, which would normally sell for about $1,500. Some of those offers have even come from competitors.

But Ganster told the Dallas Morning News that Verona has no plans to sell.

Instead, he said, the company hopes to donate the stone to a Catholic church in Oklahoma. The church could then use it as a fundraiser, or as part of a building.

“This came to us for a reason,” Ganster told the Dallas Morning News. “I don't know why, but it did.”

Jeremy Reynalds is a freelance writer and the founder and CEO of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. His newest book is "The Face of Homelessness." Additional details are available at http://www.HomelessBook.com He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jeremyreynalds@comcast.net. Tel: (505) 400-7145. Note: A higher resolution JPEG picture of Jeremy Reynalds is available on request from Dan Wooding at danjuma1@aol.com.