by Dennis Gladden, By Green Pastures, ©2026
(Feb. 4, 2026) — Our oldest granddaughter went for her driver’s permit on the first day she was eligible.
She turned fifteen on New Year’s Eve and strode through the door at Motor Vehicles on January 2.
Where have the years gone? It seems like yesterday she was careening in the driveway on her Big Wheel.
Just imagine if she had gone for the permit all those years ago, toting her three-wheeled toy.
Preposterous, of course.
She wasn’t ready.
She needed to grow up.
How blessed we are that Jesus doesn’t bring us into the mature things of God before we are ready. We can’t wait, but He is patient, knowing we must grow in grace and knowledge.
Three occasions when Jesus had to hold the eager at bay will help us appreciate His long-suffering and wait more patiently.
1. Jesus says, “Not My time,” to The Great Reveal.
It was time for one of the three annual Jewish feasts, and men of Israel headed for Jerusalem, as the law required. Jesus, however, lingered in Galilee, and His brothers accosted Him.
“No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret,” they chided. “Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.”
Jesus rejected their proposal.
“My time is not yet here; for you, any time will do.”1
Unlike His brothers, Jesus did everything by faith. He listened for His heavenly Father and moved at His command.
His brothers, however, lived by sight. “Show yourself,” they urged. “Let Your disciples see the works You do.”
Eventually, one, maybe two, of the brothers believed in Him, but now, they weren’t prepared. Israel wasn’t ready for their Messiah to be revealed, nor the world to see Jesus.
They all needed more time, more preparation.
“My time is not yet here,” Jesus said.
He stayed in Galilee a while longer.
2. Jesus delays revealing the cost of following.
From that time, Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.”2
The opening words in this statement are the key: “From that time.”
Until now, Jesus had not told the Twelve about the agony ahead.
When He called four fishermen to be His first disciples, it was succinct, mysterious, and even exciting.
“Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
But nothing about a cross.
A while later, when crowds were following, two men stepped out and declared they wanted to abandon everyday life to tour with Jesus.
“I will follow You wherever You go,” said one, while the other begged leave to bury his father and then come back.3
Jesus warned the first that he wasn’t enlisting in a smug life and commanded the second, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
Jesus gave no hint of His suffering and execution.
He didn’t say a word about denying themselves and taking up their own crosses.
They weren’t ready.
But the day came when Jesus polled the disciples about His standing in the public opinion and then asked them, pointedly, “Who do you say that I am?”
Peter famously answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
From that time, after Peter’s confession, Jesus began to talk about His imminent suffering and death.
And after that, He introduced His followers to their own path of denial and cross-bearing.
Jesus didn’t reveal these things before, but in the fullness of time, when the disciples could bear it.
Read the rest here.