Love

Without Limits

A Story of Mercy and Grace

By Shannon Ethridge

wi Th OuR DAuGh TER turning 16 this month and planning to get her driver’s license soon, my anxiety level is slightly on the rise. She is a great driver, but I know from experience that no one is exempt from momentary lapses of judgment, nor the tragedies that can result.

My Story

On August 29, 1984, I was a 16-year-old girl on the way to my high school. Driving down the farm-to-market highway, I remembered I still needed to put on lipstick. I took my eyes off the road for a quick application but felt my car jolt suddenly. When

© Dan Klepper

I got out of the car and ran to see what I had hit, I was shocked to discover a curly-haired woman lying facedown in the grass next to a mangled bicycle.

I ran to call an ambulance then called my mother and returned to the scene of the accident where other people had gathered. It took 45 minutes for the ambulance to arrive. In spite of our fervent prayers, the paramedic declared that she had most likely been killed upon impact. I returned home wondering, God, how could you have allowed this to happen? How am I ever going to face this woman’s family? Suicide was a serious consideration in these moments of desperation.

Two hours later, I received a phone call from a man named Jerry who explained that he was the neighbor of the woman I had hit. “Her name was Marjorie Jarstfer,

There is nothing you could ever do to make God love you less.

and her husband would like to invite you to their home tomorrow night,” he explained. I felt as if I was being invited to face the firing squad, but I knew I could not decline the invitation.

As I was ushered through Gary Jarstfer’s front door, I braced myself for an angry backlash. But I was shocked to see him running toward me, not with animosity in his eyes, but with his arms open wide! He scooped me up in the warmest embrace and held me as I sobbed into his flannel shirt, “I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry!”

After a few moments, Gary sat me down in a bay window and explained, “Shannon, I invited you over here because I want to tell you about Marjorie’s life. Together, we have served many years with Wycliffe Bible Translators, and there was no limit to how much Marjorie loved the Lord. She had such a close, intimate walk with God that she actually has been telling me for a while that she sensed the Lord would be calling her home soon.”

I could not fathom that someone would be so close to God that she knew when her life on earth was drawing to a close. But Gary went on to explain that Marjorie had even taken out additional life insurance recently and

22 PARENTLIFE MARCH 2008