Separation from Those We Love

Nothing can fill the gap when we are away from those we love, and it would be wrong to try to find anything. We must simply hold out and win through. That sounds very hard at first, but at the same time it is a great consolation, since leaving the gap unfilled preserves the bonds between us. It is nonsense to say that God fills the gap; God does not fill it, but keeps it empty so that our communion with another may be kept alive, even at the cost of pain.  ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison