The world hides God from us,
or we hide ourselves from God,
or for reasons of his own God hides himself from us,
but however you account for it, he is often more conspicuous by his absence than by his presence, and his absence is much of what we labor under and are heavy laden by.

Just as sacramental theology speaks of a doctrine of the Real Presence, maybe it should speak also of a doctrine of the Real Absence because absence can be sacramental, too,
a door left open, a chamber of the heart kept ready and waiting.

-Frederick Buechner