The Gift

Once upon a time, there lived an incredibly miserable giraffe.

The giraffe's name was Stiffy because unlike the other giraffes who used their long necks gracefully, Stiffy always looked awkward whatever he was doing.
This was because Stiffy did not like his long neck.
Everywhere he looked, he saw animals with short, cute necks.
He did not bother making friends with the other giraffes, but instead tried to befriend the ducks and the turtles, the tigers and the pigs.

However, he had one big problem.
He just could not have a proper conversation with any other animals besides his fellow giraffes.


"Hi!" Stiffy would say. "How's the grass today?"

"Who's there!!?" A sluggish looking turtle would answer, straining its neck to try to see which tree was talking to him.


You see, Stiffy was always just too tall to talk to any of the other animals.
So Stiffy tried to bend down as low as the other animals.
He stooped so low that he almost lost his balance and fell into a pond.

"AAAAAAHHHH!!!!" Cried a goose as it ran away from Stiffy. "There's a huge creature with a head and no body trying to eat me! HELP!!!!"

"No, no!" Stiffy cried frantically. "I just want to talk!"

But it was too late.
The goose had ran away and scared all the other animals away too.

Stiffy was so, so miserable.
He didn't have any friends, he was getting so hungry, and his neck was getting sore.
He couldn't understand WHY God had given him this ugly, useless, long neck!

On and on the days went by and Stiffy made no progress with making friends.
To make matters worse, Stiffy was getting skinnier and skinnier by the day - the grass just tasted so awful!

Finally, out of sheer hunger and frustration, Stiffy raised his long slender neck towards the sky, stretched up towards a juicy-looking bunch of leaves, and took a swipe at it.

To his surprise, Stiffy found that it was the most delicious food he had ever tasted!
Not only that, but he noticed that up at that level, the air was cleaner, the song of the birds was clearer, and the sky was bluer.

Suddenly, Stiffy felt a presence... it was his creator, God, coming for a walk.

"How are you today Stiffy?" The All-Powerful queried.

"I can't believe how great it is to be this tall!" Stiffy enthused. "Why didn't you just tell me how wonderful and beautiful my neck is! Then I wouldn't have had to go through that terrible ordeal, trying to make friends and getting so hungry!"

"I tried to." God replied wisely,"but you were always too busy stooping over and trying to be like all the other animals to notice my voice."

"Besides, if I had done that, do you think you would have learned the value of your neck - the gift I gave you?"