the time is 8:17 but that is irrelevant.

My Uncle Kelly says that life is all about relationships.

Relationships are intricate and fun and beautiful and not easy.

They are full of all kinds of challenges that are meant to be overcome. They go through turns and transitions because they need to. They need to teach us, define us, and refine us.

So even when separation, uncomfortable and inconvenient, is matched with endurance and devotion it becomes profitable for a relationship. Just like with God, we of course always want him to "feel" as near to us as he had once felt. But from time to time he will pull himself away so our longing and pursuit become stronger. Not so that he is absent (because he is not), but so we become achingly eager for him, in order that we hope for him more and recognize how deep our love for him is.