[Destro]

We are on diff wave lengths. Since an aspect of the Trinity came to us in human form, then what was once unknowable and unshowable (the Godhead) became flesh to be seen, touched, painted, recorded. The proscription on images no longer applied beyond making sure that the image only served as a visual refrence to veneration and not a substitution for what is being venerated.

I guess that is my layman's attempt.

Icons are as old as the Church - See Jesus Fish.

[HiTech RedNeck]

But of course worship of God the Son didn't stop when He ascended back into heaven. It hadn't even reached its climax. Neither do the realities that pictures are intended to represent, require the presence of the pictures to appreciate to the full. A man might as well be preoccupied with pictures of his wife while in her very presence. She'd certainly view this as strange.