For most people, bathroom mold is a cross to bear.
For Chyenna Richards in Houston, it's a sign that God is truly everywhere -- including her shower stall.
"People say your house is blessed," Richards told KRTK-TV. "I see the head, the hair, a cloak."
Where others see the presence of fungi, Richards sees a likeness of Jesus, and is moved by the holy mold.
"Maybe it means something. Maybe look into yourself and see if you need to change something in your life," she said.
The "holy mold" began growing a few months ago when Thomas George, who also lives in the house, was serving time in prison.
He believes there's a message.
"He's just watching over us to make sure nothing wrong happens or I get in trouble and go back," he told WSTP-TV, adding, "It gives me inspiration just to do better."
One sign that the mold is doing its job: One woman who lives in the home here has HIV but, according to KRTK, she's improved since the mold showed up in the shower.
Or has it?
A study conducted last year at Northwestern University suggested that humans are wired to look for familiarity and meaning in the most abstract squiggles.
To arrive at this finding, researchers asked 10 volunteers to look at squiggles while lying under a brain scanner and then rate the meaningfulness of each squiggle.
When the volunteers saw the images for a second time, they had catalogued these squiggles as faces or animals or something else that was meaningful to them and, therefore, had no reason to analyze the shapes again.
That may explain why at least one person who lives near the house with the Jesus mold had a different reaction when he saw it.
Neighbor Michael Bearden said he believes the image is of Jesus but admitted to UPI that it reminded him of someone else as well.
"It kinda looks like me!" he said.
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