Thank you so much for sharing your insights and those beautiful passages of Scripture!
And for the living, praying to dead people takes our eyes off the only mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus, who is "is before all things," and by whom "all things consist."
That is always the risk. Indeed, the risk is ever with us in this mortal life - that some thing or some one will become more important to us than God Himself - whether in a moment or a circumstance or throughout our lives. It could be our "self," a child, a spouse, a friend - a possession, an illness, a situation, a contest, an idealogy, a theology, a thing - a religious figure dead or alive - and so on.
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. – Matthew 16:24-25
The Great Commandment is a very hard teaching to live. But truly, any thing or any one that we treasure above God - even in a moment - is an "idol" to us.
To GOD be the glory, not man.