The sun is always shining, but when there is a cloud or mist between us and the sun, we do not see its brightness, nor when the eyes are diseased or blind can they see its light. I sometimes use this illustration: When the artist makes a statue of wood or stone, he does not put the image in the wood; he chips away the wood which hides the form. He gives the wood nothing, he takes it away: carves it out where too thick, pares off overlay, and then there appears what was hidden. This is the treasure hid in a field, of which our Lord tells in the Gospel.
— Meister Eckhart, Meister Eckhart, from Whom God Hid Nothing by David O'Neal, editor