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I think you all are concentrating too much on the particle aspect of light. Remember that the most interesting thing about quantum mechanics is duality; things can both be particles and waves. In this case, Light is simply a wave in the electromagnetic field. The field is localized to some region surrounding the atom. When the wave, which carries energy, reaches the atom, the atom can simply absorb the energy from the field. The amount of energy that it can absorb is quantized, thus the photon.
The photon is a product of the interaction of light with matter. Light is not a stream of bullets. Photons do not have to "hit" the "target". The concept of a photon only comes into existence when you talk about interactions between matter and an electromagnetic field. The field permeates the region surrounding the atom. The atom simply gives or recieves energy from the field through quantized packets called photons. Don't get too hung up on the particle nature of light, and don't forget about the wave nature of light.
Remember, nothing in quantum mechanics is completely localized. Particles are not little bb's. Everthing is a probablistic wave packet. There are no targets, and there are no bullets. Only interactions between probabilities.
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