Feelin' blue

This morning I realized that the son is leaving for home in a couple of days.  He has been visiting here for a week and it has been so wonderful having him.  He is a responsible adult now, caring, has a great life and regales us with many tales about his art and his life.  Haven't been at all weepy with this broken ankle but it is threatening today.  I can feel the tears hiding behind my eyelids.  It is too far to the airport for me to go and see him off on Christmas Day, but my exhausted husband will get a couple of hours to himself on the drive home that he will enjoy.  So what is it that makes us old fogys so emotional when the "kids" fly away home to return to their homes and lives?  This is a first for me.  Is it my ever advancing age?  Is it because I am kind of miserable over this ankle and the loss of activity? Is it a new awareness of my age and how our parent/child relationship is naturally going to change over the next 10 to 20 years? Am I all ready feeling that loss of spontaneity that comes as the parent approaches middle and old age?  And how is it possible to love a child so much? How does God feel about HIS children, like how does he REALLY feel? (As in not what do I feel and then expect that God feels the same way)   How can parents NOT love a child so much? Okay, enough of the blues! Time to go eat brunch and give these emotional questions a rest....but I still want to know how God FEELS.