Keeping the Dream Alive

There are three sorts of Christmas songs. There are the traditional carols that I was brought up with, there are secular Christmas classics that have nothing to do with Mary Joseph and the baby Jesus, there are modern Christian worship songs that re-imagine the Christmas story and Christian message.

I’m discovering there’s a fourth sort – songs with Christian truth that can speak to those with and without faith. Thus I’ve been delighted to hear the Marsh Family’s Christmas single ‘Keeping the Dream Alive’ a cover of the Muchener Freiheit song.

Tonight the rain is falling
Full of memories of people and places
And while the past is calling
In my fantasy I remember their faces

The hopes we had were much too high
Way out of reach, but we have to try
The game will never be over
Because we’re keeping the dream alive

I hear myself recalling
Things you said to me the night it all started
And still the rain is falling
Makes me feel the way I felt when we parted

Hopes and dreams, believing that a better world is possible, is a vital message shared by many individuals and Christmas charities. The Marsh Family are particularly supporting ‘Tiny Toes’ which supports East Kent Hospitals baby units – the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford and the Special Care Baby Unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Margate – that seek to keep the dream alive for families with little ones that arrived or departed too soon.

My Christian faith at Christmas speaks of a baby who comes to bring light to a dark world, peace to a conflicted world, joy to a sad world, hope to a desperate world… This song suggests, ‘The hopes we had were much too high.’ Many have a similar pessimistic world view. My Christian responsibility and privilege this Christmas is to believe that ‘the game will never be over’ and to actively, intentionally, passionately, keep the dream alive.

The hopes we had were much too high
Way out of reach, but we have to try
No need to hide, no need to run
‘Cause all the answers come one by one
The game will never be over
Because we’re keeping the dream alive