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God on Both Sides of the Fence

Sep 28, 2026  •  Brock Tharpe

Throughout Scripture, God repeatedly reveals His heart for people who find themselves on the outside—the overlooked, the rejected, the broken, and those who simply don’t feel like they fit. Through the stories of Hagar, Rahab, and the Samaritan woman, we see God refusing to be confined by the fences people build around Him: He sees an Egyptian slave girl in the wilderness and allows her to name Him; He rescues a Canaanite prostitute and writes her into the lineage of Jesus; and He reveals His identity as Messiah to a Samaritan woman whose life had been marked by shame and broken relationships. These stories remind outsiders that there is a place for them at Christ’s table and that their otherness may even give them a unique perspective on the tenderness of God. But they also challenge insiders to examine the boundaries they have created around who God can love, speak through, and use. When God moves beyond the borders we have drawn, perhaps the problem isn’t with God—perhaps the problem is with our fence. The God of heaven and earth is God on both sides of the fence.