Icons as representations of extra-temporal reality?

[ThePosterFormerlyKnownAs]

I was looking through a catalog today with a lot of icons and something occurred to me that I'd never thought of before. Many icons depict events from various points in time simultaneously. Given that we strive to live in the eternal now and indeed step outside time and space during the Liturgy are these aspects of certain icons merely incidental or are they intended to represent the extra-temporal reality in which God and the Church triumphant exist?

If this doesn't make any sense, please forgive me for not articulating it well. Thanks for any input.

[Theophorus]

I don't know the official view, but I have noticed it as well. I think they do step outside of time.

[nutroll]

You had yourself a first-class, grade A thought there. That is precisely the reason why there are so many "anachronisms" in icons. And it is the same reason that we have hymns that say "Today the Virgin cometh unto the cave" and "Today is the beginning of our Salvation" and why we say " Christ is Risen!" and "Christ is Born!" It is the notion of the "Fulness of Time," and that even though certain events occur within our perception of time, they occur in God's time, and that in His time, all is complete and whole.

[ThePosterFormerlyKnownAs]

Thanks!