i have never heard of anyone praying to the ark of the covenant....the second commandment states....."You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God".....what do you see when you walk into a catholic church?.....and what do you see people doing below those statues?..
As you say, no one prays to the ark and no one prays to statues. They pray to God. In Biblical times people were carving images (in some places known as 'totems') and they believed that the image carried the power of that image. When cameras were invented, and images of people were captured, some more primitive people thought it was ill luck to have an image of themselves captured on paper because they saw it as drawing from their own personal power to give to the image.
Imagining an image has power is an incorrect assumption. Bible teaches us not worship an object due to a belief that object has some kind of mystical or magical power because that image is not God, and has no power. For that reason, when I was in Catholic school, we were taught to eschew "lucky" rabbit feet, coins, trinkets. A rabbit foot, a coin, or a trinket has no power.
On the other hand, using a lit candle, a book, prayer beads, a statue, a picture to focus one's mind on worship/prayer to God is not worshiping that object, it is using that object as one might use a spoon with which to eat.
As with the ark, images may simply denote that one is in a holy place, a holy Presence. No one worships the holy place, they simply act accordingly when they are on holy land.
