Italian tenor, Andrea Bocelli, recently released his newest album, Si.
Bocelli has cemented his UK popularity amongst British audiences with Si becoming his first UK number one album. Much of Si’s popularity is down to the song ‘Fall On Me’ (also featured in the credits of newly released Disney Film The Nutcracker and the Four Realms).
Besides listening to the song, you should watch the video; it’s beautifully done and well worth your time. The talent is top-notch, featuring Bocelli with his up-and-coming talented son, Matteo. The scenery is elegant and simple. And sentimental family photos fill the screen.
Fathers and sons
‘Fall on Me’ is a song about fathers and sons, a song about Andrea and Matteo. The father offers his support as his nervous son journeys into adulthood, singing ‘I don’t know what’s right for me/I cannot see straight’. They navigate life together with the refrain ‘fall on me/with open arms’. The father offers the wisdom of life; the son offers his physical sight to his blind father. They tenderly lean on each other, with ‘fall on me’ taking multiple meanings: the son waits for his destiny to fall on him; the father offers his unending support and arms to fall on; and, ultimately, the son offers the strength of his arms to the ageing father.
The emotional lyrics and video tug on the heartstrings. A majority of comments on the video (viewed more than 33 million times) say that the listener was brought to tears. It reminds us of the sacrificial love of our earthly fathers. The pictures remind us of the little memories that make up childhood: the father plays chess with his young son, they read together, they laugh together … and time is the great enemy! The father advises his son: ‘Don’t give up hope … my love will forever be stronger than stone / you are never alone’.
Striking a chord
But why are so many led to tears? Perhaps they are tears of grief for their own fathers, or of mourning the freedom of childhood? Or perhaps the tears are an overflow of pride felt towards their own sons? Fathers the world over have picked up the pieces when children fail and encouraged them to keep going when no one else seems to notice; it’s easy to feel emotional at these thoughts. Let me suggest, however, another reason: it’s because earthly love is so fleeting. We cry because we want and need so much more, even those of us blessed by stable homes and wonderful Christian fathers need more. We cry because the beautiful things about familial relationships are just a fallen shadow of what they should be.
The Father who is always there
We know the sin in our own hearts, the weakness of our parents (and of our own parenting). We cry because the song makes our hearts cry out for what we really want. We want what father-son relationships might have been had Cain been born inside Eden’s walls. More so, we want the Father who is always there, who never sleeps and never slumbers. We want the Father who catches our every tear. We want the Father whose very words are power, whose song ‘My love will forever be stronger than stone’ is not merely encouraging, but effectual!
‘Fall on Me’ declares ‘Don’t be afraid, you are never alone’, but what father can rightfully say that? Too many know the pain of losing fathers: to divorce, to disease, to drugs … the list is endless. Only the Father who made the very earth we tread can declare ‘you are never alone’.
Words in vain
Bocelli, on behalf of earthly fathers everywhere, assures his son that everything will be alright. ‘Don’t give up hope for I know you are close’ are tender words said in earnest, but apart from Christ they are in vain. But when our Heavenly Father says everything will be alright, these are the words of a Father who has himself made things right. Who has pursued us in the midst of our rebellion and brought us home. When he says ‘Fall on Me’ he’s saying fall on my redemption plan, fall on my son, the Christ. It’s his gospel plan that takes away pain, death, sin, and everything else from which earthly fathers so desperately seek to protect their children.
Without doubt, the families God gives us are gifts and means of grace to us. But they are fallen. We are feeble sons with feeble fathers. Enjoy the song, let it remind us to thank God for the fathers in our lives, but, ultimately, let it cause us to long for the true Father.
