Dreaming of a Holy Night became the title track of my third collection of Christmas songs. It’s a song born out of the tension we all feel, between the world as it is and the world as we long for it to be.

Every Christmas, we catch glimpses of beauty, peace, and goodwill. Moments that remind us of what we were made for. Yet we also live in the reality of a broken world: conflict, injustice, disappointment, and longing. The song sits right in that space where our dreams and our realities meet and it finds its centre in the story of Christmas.

There’s a line from O Little Town of Bethlehem that has always struck me deeply:

“The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”

That captures the heart of this song. The hopes and fears of all humanity come together around this tiny child in Bethlehem. Every longing, every ache for peace, every dream of a better world finds its answer in Him.

At the heart of Dreaming of a Holy Night is the invitation that comes with the Christmas story. Each of us, when we hear it, faces a choice: What will I do with this child? Will I put my trust in the One who claims to be the Son of God, the One who came to reconcile us to God and to begin the remaking of all things?

Because that’s what Christmas is ultimately about. It’s not just nostalgia or tradition, it’s about reconciliation and renewal. In the birth of Jesus, God began His great work of restoring what has been spoiled, healing what has been broken, and fulfilling the deepest longings of the human heart.

So as we dream of a better world, Dreaming of a Holy Night reminds us that those dreams are not in vain. The hope we long for has already begun in a stable, on a night made holy by the presence of God Himself.