Testimony Your personal "weird" experiences with icons

[tractor]

I never bought the protestant idea that icons are idols even when I wasn't Orthodox.

Bur recently, I've come to realize that icons are far more than just a painting on a piece of wood which reminds you of Our Savior, the Trinity and many great dudes called Saints.

They do speak to us, to our soul, it seems. And I think icons may speak even more clearly and strongly to children due to their innocense and pure heart. Let me give you a few examples.

My little kid always liked the icon-like picture of Our Savior from one children's book. I wasn't even Orthodox when I purchased it. When I opened it he pointed his cute little finger to Jesus and said "dada!" with such confidence as if he would know Him. In fact, it was one of the very few books my son was interested in when he was a few months old.

But what happenned today was literally biblical. I bought a Byzantine #Christ #Pantocrator icon over a month ago. Last Sunday I finally decided to put it on a book shelf in the living room (I don't have a dedicated prayer corner). Today, my wife was crushing a lemon for her delicious cheesecake. My son managed to "seize" the lemon and made a few bits. Then he run straight to the Pantocrator icon and, while holding up the lemon, said "Here!". And kept repeating it for a while. Like, as if Our Savior would ask for water and my boy only had something very sour to give.

Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. (Mark 15:36)

Have you experienced something similar or even "weirder"?

 

[fortyfive]

I was raised in an atheistic environment as a child. Only my grandmother was a believer as I remember. She was ridiculed for her faith by some members of a family, and she kept quiet about God, maybe for that reason. She had at home also some religious things which were the object of constant jokes from "modern" family relatives.
But every summer my parents sent me to her home for a couple of weeks.
And I remember one specific thing until today, which has definitely impacted my life.

In the room where I was sleeping, was a painting on the wall. On this painting, was a Jesus, praying during the night, with moon glowing moonlight over Him.
Every night before I fell asleep I looked at this painting. Sometimes that painting was illuminated by real moonlight from behind a window.
It is hard to explain, but that picture was releasing peace and safety for me by looking at it. Not imaginable, real. I felt and knew, the person on that painting is real and live.

Today, I don't have at home any paintings, because modern art is an alien thing to me, but if I have that painting I will put it on the wall.

 

[JustinHS]

So I told my wife that we should get a “Christ the King” icon for the house because I really like that motif, and she agreed. Anyway, I ordered a different icon from Uncut Mtn Supply, it’s the icon of the ark of salvation in a “normal” size, and it took the usual time icons take to get done. I didn’t think much about it, tbh. The icon eventually came a month after ordering (which is fine because that’s normally how long they take), and when I saw the package on the porch, I thought it was odd because it was larger than I expected. Opened up the box to find the icon we ordered, but also another one. The good priest at Uncut Mtn hooked us up with a free extra-large sized icon of Christ the King as an apology for taking too long on the order. It was very gracious of them and providential that they hooked us up with the icon we talked about eventually getting:

https://www.uncutmountainsupply.com/icons/of-christ/icon-of-christ-the-saviour-11s35/

Not a spectacular miracle, but I believe it was just a way for God to let us know He’s there.