Was Jesus a late bloomer?

I was listening to klove the other day and heard them read a verse about Mary, Jesus' mom...

“Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. ³¹ You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”(from Luke 1)

First, how great would that be to have an angel announce you're going to get pregnant. I mean maybe that takes away from the surprise, but at this point I'd love an angel to come tell me I'm going to get pregnant. But that's not what this blog is about.

So Mary hears from an angel that she's going to have a son who is going to be a king. Wow, that's a lot for a mom to take in, but Mary knew that God was going to send a king to save them, she just found out that SHE was going to be the mother of this king. How exciting would that be!

Fast forward 33 years and he's still not a king. That was middle-age back in those days. I think that would be like having a son today who is in his 40's and still living at home. I wonder if Mary questioned if that angel experience really happened. Did she wonder if the message was meant for someone else? Or maybe God changed his mind? Or did she have complete faith that in time, God's timing, her son would be the king God promised he would be.

I can't forget about Jesus' first miracle. You might remember that this was when he turned water into wine at a wedding. What you may not know is that Mary was there and when the wedding ran out of wine, it was Mary's idea for Jesus to do something about it.

¹ On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, ² and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. ³ When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”
   ⁴ “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”
 ⁵ His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
 ⁶ Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
 ⁷ Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
 ⁸ Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
   They did so, ⁹ and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine.
(From John 2)

I've heard some different explanations about this passage, but how I understand it is that Mary knew Jesus could perform a miracle (though the Bible says this was his first - see verse 11), so she basically asked him to help the newlyweds so their party wouldn't end badly. He said "it's not my time yet" which I think means that it wasn't time for him to start revealing who he was. But when his mom told the servants to do whatever he said, well I guess he didn't have a choice. (Mom's are good at that.) I'd also like to mention that he didn't just turn the water into wine, he turned it into the best wine (see verse 10).

Now I understand moms always hope the best for their children, so maybe she never gave up hope that Jesus would become the promised king. (I have mental image of Mary saying "now?" and Jesus saying "my hour has not yet come" and Mary smiling at him.) But I wonder if her family and friends were skeptical, maybe even doubtful. It's just that when you hear a promise you don't normally expect it to take 33 years.

Did you feel like God promised something and he hasn't delivered in the timing you were hoping for? Maybe you read something in the Bible that made you hope for something that hasn't happened yet. Just know that God's timing is perfect, and he knows best.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
   neither are your ways my ways,”
            declares the LORD.
Isaiah 55:8