It does not matter whether a person believes in God or not, he/she must know things that belong to religion, at least in order to be educated. For religious people church is one of the most important things, and everything that is inside it is something that can be studied endlessly and interpreted differently.

Usually when a person prays to God he tries to address him and the most effective way to do that is to look at the icon and imagine that you talk to God or to the saint that is depicted in the icon.

The icon is an image the Orthodox Church cannot exist without at all. When one enters the church, the first thing that catches the eye is that every Orthodox Church is full of icons with different images, saints depicted in them. They can be really huge and very small. But the beauty of the icon is not in its size or colorfulness. The beauty of the icon is a sacred origin that can be comprehended only by a faithful person. People appeal to God when they feel lost, when they do not know what to do, when they need help. Hence in order to do that they look at the icon and try to talk to it in a special inner way.

I believe that the icon is a sacred material object that can be a part of our God. It is a representation of the holy things. It is something that helps us to feel some support: because people tend to believe in things that can be seen or touched and unfortunately we cannot see God but we can see its gift: the icon.