Sunday was a blur.

With the exception of a short 1-1/2 hour span of time in the middle of the afternoon, my duty as interim Worship Leader required me to be at church from 7:30 am until 7:30 pm. This was an exception rather than the rule because we were presenting a special Holiday program at 6:00 pm and final preparations were made between the morning and evening services.

Because of the day’s schedule, I was not able to spend any quality time with my little girl. She stayed at Mom’s house after the traditional Sunday lunch and was “supposedly” napping during my free time so I was quite ready to see her and get some lovin’ when the final “amen” was pronounced.

The three of us grabbed a quick meal once the service was over and then headed to Kohl’s Department Store for my wife to shop. At some point, Carmi was off doing her thing while Eliana and I were left to wander aimlessly by ourselves.

As we walked and made light-hearted conversation, she reached up and grabbed my hand. Almost at the exact same moment, I looked at her and asked, “Can I tell you a secret?”.

Eliana loves secrets. She gets all “giddy” when a secret is about. So there was no surprise when she looked up wide-eyed with anticipation and nodded her head while saying, “Yeah!”.

I leaned down and whispered, “I love you…”.

If only you could have seen her reaction. It was priceless.

Do you remember the Cheshire Cat in Alice In Wonderland? Sporting a huge grin that imitated this fictional character perfectly, she shot a look my way and her beautiful brown eyes just sparkled as she replied matter-of-factly, “Awwwww…that’s no secret!”.

Some secrets just aren’t made to be kept.