One of the malachim who came to visit Avraham Avinu brought the most beautiful news: "Ka'eit chayah u'lSarah ben" —"At this time next year, Sarah will have a son." But hidden in those words was a second message. The angel wasn't only telling Avraham that he and Sarah would finally have a child. He was also assuring them: Ka'eit chayah —At this time next year, you will both be alive and well to hold that child in your arms. This promise carried an eternal truth. The malach was a messenger of Hashem, and only Hashem can guarantee life. When a person is meant to live, no human, no illness, and no circumstance can shorten that time. Hashem alone is the Guardian of life, watching every one of His children with infinite love and precision. A rabbi related a story that happened at the beginning of the school year. His three-year-old child boarded the van as usual to go to school in the morning. When his wife arrived to pick the child up at 2:30 p.m., the teacher said, "Your child wasn't in school today." Panic. A mother's worst nightmare. They began to search frantically—and to their shock, they found the little boy still inside the van that had brought him that morning. The van had been sitting in the parking lot for hours. The weather that week had been brutally hot. But on that one day , the temperature dropped dramatically, and rain fell steadily. The child was perfectly fine. Hashem had arranged the weather so that this child would be spared. The time of his life had not yet come to an end—so Hashem changed nature itself to preserve it. A few days later, a man from the rabbi's shul approached him. He had heard the story and wanted to sponsor the Shabbat breakfast as a seudat hodah , a thanksgiving meal to Hashem for the rabbi's miracle. The rabbi thanked him but asked that no names be mentioned. "Let it be," he said, "a general hakarat ha'tov to Hashem for always protecting us." The man agreed and called the shul to sponsor the Shabbat kiddush in gratitude to Hashem "for watching over all our children and grandchildren." That evening, when he came home, his wife told him something startling. She had been babysitting a few grandchildren earlier that day. While she prepared something in the kitchen, she left them to play in the den. When she returned, she froze in horror—a toddler was holding a pen and poking it toward the eye of the baby sitting in an infant chair. She rushed to stop him, but there was already blood. Terrified, she called Hatzalah . After thorough testing, the doctors confirmed that, baruch Hashem , the baby's eye was completely unharmed. The poke had missed the pupil entirely. Her husband asked, "What time did that happen?" She said, "Around 4:30." The man was stunned. "That's exactly when I called the shul to sponsor the kiddush thanking Hashem for protecting our grandchildren—just minutes before this happened!" Hashem watches over every life with divine timing and infinite compassion. There are times when a soul's mission in this world is complete and it returns to its home in Gan Eden . But as long as a person is meant to live, no harm can touch him. Ka'eit chayah —Hashem decides the measure of every moment, and His protection never falters.