The strangest thing happened on Christmas night last year. You may have heard about it on the news. In a small town in Pennsylvania, a man got into an armed standoff with police. Such events occur so often nowadays, we’re likely to forget the details of any particular episode. This episode, however, is different.

This man was acting erratically and shooting at police officers. Members of the local SWAT team surrounded him and tried to talk him into surrendering, but he wouldn’t listen. This standoff lasted for ten hours, and it could have ended tragically. But it didn’t.

A police negotiator with the SWAT team gave up talking with the suspect. Instead, he began singing. The song he sang was the old Bing Crosby song, “White Christmas.” “I’m dreaming of a White Christmas . . .”

Then someth…