“He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all are alive.”
At some tables there is a chair nobody quite decides to move. It stays where it always was, and at the end of the meal someone tucks it back in, though no one sat there. If there is a chair like that in your home, or a seat in the car, or a name you still nearly call when dinner is ready, you will know how loud an empty place can be.