Comment on Icons

Some time ago, I posted an article called"Not for Lightweights" in which a Baptist pastor recounts his first experience with Orthodox worship. Below is a comment by one of his readers that I thought was worth quoting here:

One of the things I like about the separation (the iconostasis, as the Orthodox call it) is that, unlike in the original Temple, the doors OPEN and the curtain is pulled aside. And even when closed - even when we are reminded that, in our current state, we are outside and needing to repent and go deeper into God - there are still icons on the iconostasis. And what do these say? They say, "This is the way," and "Come this way." They are like windows through the wall looking in on the cloud of witnesses beckoning us forward to the altar - forward to home.
The whole architecture of an Orthodox building is rife with theological significance. For example, the two icons adjacent to the royal doors (the middle doors in the iconostasis) are always the same two icons. On one side is the Virgin and Child, and on the other is Christos Pantocrator (Christ ruler of all) - an image of Christ with the book of Life. The first represents Christ in His first coming, the second is Christ in His second coming. In between them are the royal doors, at which the prayers of the Church are said and through which the Eucharist comes. Between the 1st and 2nd comings, iconically, is the life of the Church. And the life of the Church is communion - the encounter with the risen Christ.