MUTUAL LOVE SERIES – “Regard for everyone” (08/20/2025)

My father took the family on vacation. We traveled by car with a pop-up camper from Iowa to California – the seven of us. When we arrived in California, our father told us he wanted us to meet a special friend of his. He didn’t tell us more than that initially. We were really surprised when we met the man our dad was so bent on us meeting.

He joined us for breakfast at a restaurant not far from Disneyland. He was wearing jeans and a short-sleeved plaid shirt. He seemed normal enough and nice enough. Actually, he was very friendly. He introduced himself to all of us, even my younger siblings. He sat next to our dad, and they visited. When Dad asked about his family, we kids sort of checked out of the conversation and started our own.

When it was time to leave, my dad told us all that this man was going to be our host after our trip to Disneyland at his private resort. After he left, Dad questioned us about what we saw and noticed. None of us had much to offer except that he seemed nice but not that special or memorable. That’s when our father explained to us who we’d just been spending time with at breakfast: a very wealthy man who owned a very large chain of grocery stores in California. Then Dad said something I will always remember. “I hope that if you attain great things in life that you will always be as real and humble as my friend Ray.”

I thought about what my dad had to say a lot on that trip. I thought about it when we met him again at his resort ranch and how “normal” he seemed, without airs of superiority even though he was far wealthier than most anyone else I’d ever met. He was kind. He was generous. He was humble. It wasn’t all about him. In fact, whenever we were together, he was always more interested in us and what we were doing.   

In Paul’s list of duties for disciples in Romans 12, verse 15 specifically tells us, “Have the same regard for one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly; do not be wise in your own estimation.”  When I read those words, I think of Ray Bateman and the lessons he taught me through his example, and I think of my father and his hope that we could always be “real” and “humble.” I think Jesus would have liked Ray and approved of my father’s advice.

In this life, let us seek to encounter all with loving kindness and respect.  Let us treat the poorest and the richest in the room the same. Let us leave pride in our glove compartments. And let us be blessed with the wisdom that we are probably not the wisest one in the room. Let us be humble as our loving Savior called us to be and modeled for us – “for I am gentle and humble of heart.” If we truly wish to follow in His footsteps, we will need to learn about humility.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.