I am a member of the Singing Quakers, an incredible choir at Friends University. We really are like a family. Over Spring Break, our family loaded up two charter buses and headed on tour through Western Kansas (woo) and parts of Colorado (actually woo.)

One of our last stops was the small town of Elizabeth, Colorado, where we sang at a local church. Following our singing, we were all put in groups and paired up with families in Elizabeth, "home stays" that we would crash with over night. My friends Anna, Shawntel, Marleah and I were placed with the pastor of the church and his family for the evening.

Let me just start by saying that the first thing that came out of their mouths when we hopped in their car was, "What do you guys need? Ice cream?" We obviously followed that question with a resounding "YES."

After settling in at their sweet guest house/homeschooling building, we joined the family in their main home. As soon as we stepped in the door we were greeted with a massive amount of comfort and joy. Peppermint tea was steeping, ice cream was ready to be scooped, their youngest daughter had even drawn and colored beautiful pictures for us.

Plus, there were dogs.

You should know that I love ice cream, but up until this point, I was not a fan of tea. But here, there was something special brewing, quite literally.

As I sipped on my peppermint tea, surrounded by family, both old and new, something just felt right. Our new family went around asking each of us about ourselves, our families, our faith and each of us answered with soul-baring honesty, as if we had known them our whole lives.

We were told about their family, their time overseas, their adopted daughters, their faith in the Lord, their adventure of starting a farm on their own in Elizabeth. We were immensely encouraged by their honest and passionate faith. It was as if we had known them our whole lives.

They didn't prepare rooms for us anywhere fancy, but that was exactly as we liked it. In the morning they didn't cook us anything special, they shared what they had, exactly as we liked it.

It was as if we had known them our whole lives.

And maybe we had.

The special thing inside of our host family wasn't their effort or persistence, it wasn't something they manufactured or worked hard on, this "it" was Christ.

Someone we had known our whole lives, someone who had always walked beside us, was there, sustaining us on ice cream, conversation, and peppermint tea.

I am happy to announce that I have a fondness of tea now, especially peppermint. Each time I sit down to a cup of peppermint tea, my heart swells and the outside of it that has been built up and calloused begins to melt.

A warmth and a light travels through every part of my body, and I'm reminded of the evening I felt completely at home, the evening I laughed more truly, the evening that Christ was palpable, in the flesh of his people.

And now peppermint tea has meaning, as if it had been present my whole life.

Thanks be to God.