Genesis 1:6-8 — "And God said, 'Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.' So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. God called the expanse 'sky.'"
On the second day of creation, God didn't build anything. He didn't fill anything. He didn't make anything grow.
He made space.
Before any living thing existed. Before the land appeared. Before the first seed was planted or the first creature drew breath — God looked at the gathered, churning waters and created an expanse. A separation. Room to breathe.
I don't think that's accidental.
The Second Day Was Always About the Inner Work
We live in a world that rewards Day Three — the fruitfulness, the harvest, the visible evidence that something is growing. We celebrate what can be seen and measured. We honor what gets produced. And so, quietly, without really meaning to, most of us have learned to sprint past Day Two.
We skip the inner work.
We keep moving. We keep serving. We keep studying Scripture and showing up and doing the things a faithful Christian woman is supposed to do. And all of that is real, and it matters. But underneath the activity, something is still churning — grief that was never grieved, shame that was never named, wounds that were never brought into the light. Waters without an expanse. Everything pressed together with no room to breathe.
The Waters Retreat is the space God makes when He separates what has been pressed together too long.
This garden space — what you'll find labeled Healing & Wholeness in the blog and shop — exists for that work. The slow, sacred, sometimes uncomfortable work of letting God into the tender places you may have been protecting for a very long time.
What the Waters Retreat Is Really About
When God separated the waters, something beautiful happened that we don't always notice: He created room. The expanse He made between the waters above and the waters below wasn't filled with anything — it was just space. Just breath. Just the possibility of something new.
That's what inner healing feels like when it's given the room it needs. Not the dramatic transformation you can post about. Not the tidy testimony with a clear before and after. More like an expanse slowly opening inside you — a little more room to breathe than there was before, a little more light getting in, a little more space between you and the thing that used to feel like it was crushing you.
This is not a quick process. It is not a linear one. And it is most certainly not one that can be forced or rushed.
Which is exactly why it belongs in a garden called Soft Sacred Slow.
Why So Many Women Skip This Garden
There are a hundred reasons women move past the inner work without stopping. Maybe you were taught that dwelling on the past is self-indulgent, that the answer to pain is just more Scripture, more prayer, more getting up and pressing forward. Maybe the church spaces you've been part of didn't make room for the messy middle of healing — only for the testimony on the other side of it. Maybe you've been carrying your wounds for so long that you've stopped noticing the weight.
Or maybe — and this is the one I want to sit with for a moment — you were never told that healing is discipleship.
Not a detour from your faith walk. Not a sign that something is wrong with your faith. Not something to hurry through so you can get back to the real work of following Jesus.
The healing is part of following Jesus. The inner work is sacred ground. The tenderness you feel when you finally stop and let God near the places you've been managing and protecting — that is not weakness. It is the beginning of a deeper intimacy with Him than you may have ever known.
He is not waiting for you to be whole before He draws close. He comes close because you are not yet whole. That's the whole point of Him.
Who Finds Their Way to The Waters Retreat
Women come to this garden from many different directions.
Some come carrying church hurt — the particular kind of wound that comes from being harmed in a space that was supposed to be safe. Theology used as a weapon. The community that closed ranks when you needed them most. The shame that was preached so deeply into you that you still hear those voices when you open your Bible.
Some come with grief — losses that may have never been fully mourned because life didn't stop long enough to let them be. A relationship that ended. A season that didn't go the way it was supposed to. A version of yourself or your future that had to be let go.
Some come with shame that has no name — just the persistent sense of not being enough, of being too much, of being fundamentally different from the women who seem to have it together in ways you never quite do.
Some come carrying wounds from relationships — from people who were supposed to love them well and didn't. From patterns that kept repeating. From the exhausting work of loving difficult people while quietly falling apart inside.
And some come simply because they are tired. Tired of keeping everything together. Tired of performing okayness. Tired of building a faith life on top of a foundation that has never been fully tended.
Wherever you're coming from, you are welcome here. You don't have to have it figured out. You don't have to know exactly what needs to heal. You just have to be willing to let God meet you in it.
What Healing in Christ Actually Looks Like
I want to be honest with you about something: this is not a garden about fixing yourself.
If you come to The Waters Retreat expecting a clear plan for getting over your past, a system for managing your emotions, or a method for finally becoming the kind of woman who doesn't struggle with the things you struggle with — you will not find that here. That's not what this work is.
Healing in Christ is less about fixing and more about allowing. Allowing God into the closed-off rooms. Allowing the truth of who He says you are to slowly displace the lies that have taken up residence. Allowing grief to be grief, and shame to be named, and wounds to be tended rather than managed.
It is slow work. It is sacred work. And it often looks from the outside like nothing is happening at all — because the most significant things happening in The Waters Retreat are happening beneath the surface, in the depths that no one else can see.
But God sees them. He has always seen them. And He is not standing at the edge of your pain waiting for you to manage it well enough to be in His presence. He is already in the depths with you, doing what only He can do.
What You'll Find Here
The resources in the Healing & Wholeness section of our shop are designed to walk alongside you in this work — not to rush you through it. You'll find devotionals and journals for navigating emotional healing, grief, shame, and the slow process of renewing your mind in Christ. Resources for women processing church hurt and learning to return to Scripture without the weight of what was done to them there. Guides for understanding and releasing resentment, breaking free from self-condemnation, and learning what it actually means to let God into the tender places.
Because that's what light does — it separates. Just as God separated light from darkness on that first day, the work of The Waters Retreat is learning to separate the truth of who God says you are from all the noise and messages that have told you otherwise. Separating your worth from your productivity and your identity from your output. Separating your belovedness from your performance.
None of these resources will do the work for you. But they can give language to what you're carrying, create space for the conversations you haven't been able to have, and point you again and again toward the God who is already in the depths with you.
An Invitation to Linger Here
You do not have to be in crisis to belong in The Waters Retreat. You do not have to have a dramatic wound or a devastating story. Sometimes, the women who need this garden most are the ones who have simply been quietly carrying things for a very long time without anyone ever making room for it.
If that's you, this is me making room.
Stay as long as you need. Come back as often as the season asks. Let it be slow. Let it be tender. Let God be in it.
The expanse He makes in the deep places of your heart is not empty. It is full of exactly what your soul has been longing for.
The Waters Retreat is one of seven garden spaces in the Soft Sacred Slow Garden. Each space is rooted in one day of creation and tends to a different area of your spiritual formation. You can explore the full garden from the About The Garden page in the navigation bar.
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