An icon is more than a simile; it is a metaphor, containing within itself something of the indescribable, so that the need for description vanishes. It is not just like. It is. Jesus is God. What an affirmation! Jesus is not like God, Jesus is God, the ultimate metaphor. Poets use both similes and metaphors, but metaphor is the stronger. “The moon is a golden galleon.” “My love is the sun and the moon.”
Whatever is an open door to God is, for me, an icon. It may be that small picture pasted on wood with which I travel. The icon of the three angels, the Holy Trinity, does not prove to me anything about God, but it opens the doors and windows of my heart.