There is a difference between an idol and an icon. As you find in Genesis, "Let us make man according to our icon and according to our likeness."
The use of the term "eikona" is a revelation with a substantial participation. It isn't alien to the object represented and not present only in the mind, but it's its reality and it illumines its inner essence.

It is in this sense that we Orthodox use icons, which are not idols.