The meeting

The little girl sat on the bench across the hall from the door. She kicked her legs nervously and occasionally cast an anxious glance at the door, certain that she'd heard the handle turn.
She'd been summoned to meet the Master that morning and she had no idea why. She'd never met the Master before, so she assumed that this must be a very bad thing. She racked her brain, going through every bad thing she'd ever done, every mistake she'd ever made, even those that she had only thought about and chosen against for fear of getting in trouble. Maybe this was for sneaking food to bed last night, but no, she'd done that before and hadn't had to visit the Master for it.
The girl sighed, she tried so hard to be good, and she would still do naughty things. She thought she must be the most punished child in the orphanage she lived in. She drew her knees to her her chest and wrapped her arms around them, "Oh why am I so bad?" she moaned.
She knew she deserved her discipline, and every night she would pray sincerely to be made into a good girl. Still this didn't seem to help. Teachers, Caretakers and friends would often tell her that she wasn't trying hard enough, or they would tell her that there was no hope, she was just a bad girl.
She sighed, what about the Master? What would he say to her? What would he do to her? She began to shake as her imagination ran wild through all the possible punishments she could think of.
The door opened and the child's heart leaped into her throat, her heart beat wildly as the receptionist emerged.
"He's ready for you. Go on in and knock." The the receptionist walked off down the hall.
The little girl shuffled into the receptionists office and stood frozen, staring at the door. "The sooner I knock the sooner I get this over with. She started toward the door and raised her hand to knock, then a new thought occurred to her; what if she was about to be punished for every bad thing she'd ever done? Her hand began to shake again and her breathing came out fast, it seemed as though she just could not get enough air.
"Come on, hand!" She whispered, suddenly the thought of running away went dashing through her mind, but then she imagined how much more trouble she could be in if she did that.
She inwardly chastised herself "Why do you do bad stuff? If only you were good you wouldn't be here!" And another thought intruded on her already terrified mind; what if the Master was watching her right now? (They told her that he was always watching.) What if he was watching the clock and timing her, and the more time she took the worse her punishment would be. She knocked, "Come in!"
The little girl was so startled by the instant reply that she found herself on the other side of the office before she even realized she was running. "No!" She stopped herself and turned back around "What you get is what you deserve!" She told herself as she always did when facing punishment. She marched back up to the door, put her hand on the handle and pushed it open.
As she entered the Masters office it took her eyes a moment to adjust to the light, this office seemed to have much brighter lights than any other office she'd ever been in, usually they were dark and dusty.
"Well, hello! Take a seat!" A kind voice came from behind the desk. The poor girl nearly jumped out of her skin. She looked about suspiciously, she was looking for... anything! A man in a mask to leap from anywhere and grab her and tie her to a chair or something. Her imagination was going wild! Nothing happened, and she knew that the Master must be trying to trick her with that kind voice; it wasn't something she'd never experienced before. Still what could she do?
She sat in a very large cushioned chair. Her eyes kept darting everywhere, everywhere except that man behind the desk. The little girl knew that if her eyes met his, he would surely know everything bad she'd ever done.
"Do you know why I called you here?"
The little girl hung her head, "here it comes." She thought. She stared hard at her hands. "No sir." She mumbled.
"You don't?" He sounded slightly surprised.
Something snapped inside and the little girl burst into tears, the pressure was just too much. "I'm sorry!" She cried "I want to be good! Really I do! I want to obey and I try so hard! I don't know what's wrong with me! I'm just bad and I make so many mistakes! But I'll take whatever punishment you give me; anything! I'm so sorry!"
The man was silent while the little girl made herself into a ball and her whole body shook with her sobs. Finally her tears subsided as she noticed that nothing was happening. There were many long moments of silence.
Then the little girl heard a sniff, and then another, she looked up in amazement, the man behind the desk; the Master was crying!
"I didn't bring you here to punish you," he spoke softly, "I brought you here to tell you that I'm proud of you, I've been watching you a long time, I've seen you stop yourself from doing wrong so many times. I've seen you turn yourself in for the bad things you've done. You have a good heart. All I wanted was to get to know you, to tell you that I love you, I'm proud of you and I want to adopt you and make you my daughter."
The girl stared in shock, she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "No!" She cried "That's not what I deserve!" She covered her ears and shook her head.
The Master got up and knelt in front her chair, he gently removed her hands from her ears, he held her gaze with his and he wiped her tears with his hand. "I don't care what you deserve; this is what I want to give you." He gathered her in his arms and held her as she wept, rocking her and whispering away all the lies in her head with his truth.
The little girl expected to leave the Masters office that day feeling even more ashamed than before, but instead she left that day with a Father and a whole new life to begin living with Him.