As a young girl, Maya Angelou stopped speaking for nearly five years due to childhood trauma. During this time, she was sent to live with her grandmother in Arkansas. One day, her grandma’s neighbor named Mrs. Bertha Flowers, invited Maya to her home for tea and cookies. During their visit, she gently encouraged Maya to read aloud and introduced her to the beauty of literature and the spoken word. This simple invitation—to share an afternoon and read together—helped Maya find her voice again, literally. She started to speak again. And it, thus, set her on a path to becoming one of the most influential speakers and writers of the 20th century. A simple invitation can have that sort of impact, and no invitation has more power than the one given by Jesus. John 1:35-51 describes 3 aspects of Christ’s invitation to the world.