We’re all scared. We’re all worried about our own health and the health of family and friends. Many of us are worried about how we’re going to pay the rent or buy groceries as the coronavirus pandemic eats away at our very livelihoods.

Such an environment could easily bring out the worst in our people and institutions. But, as recent events have shown, it might just be bringing out the best.

That was evident on Tuesday and Wednesday, when the Bowling Green faith community stepped up with a huge show of support for the health care workers at the city’s two hospitals.

Organized by Crossland Community Church Senior Pastor Gregg Farrell, these motorcades wound through the campus of Med Center Health on Tuesday and the grounds of TriStar Greenview Regional Hospital on Wednesday.

The response was heartwarming as nurses, doctors and other medical professionals lined up – keeping the appropriate social distance, of course – outside and soaked in the much-deserved cheers and read the many homemade signs expressing gratitude to those on the front lines of this battle against a microscopic-but-mighty foe.

Especially during this Easter season, such a faith-based show of love and support was appropriate. Farrell and the Crossland Community Church members are to be commended for organizing this important “prayer parade” and covering our health care workers with prayers and gratitude.

As Farrell said in the kickoff to these events, “We want to turn it (the hospital campus) into one of the most holy places on the face of the earth.”

He and the hundreds who showed up for the events may have come close to realizing that lofty goal. At the very least they demonstrated how the Bowling Green community is rallying together even as we all must remain separated as the primary means of defeating this fast-spreading disease.

At a time when we all need reassurance, Crossland provided a bit of it, but the “prayer parade” events, while highly visible, are far from the only examples of how our community is stepping up to help friends, neighbors and even total strangers.

Two recent Feeding America food distribution events at Warren County’s Ephram White and Buchanon parks showed how the United Way of Southern Kentucky and Warren County Parks and Recreation Department staffers can come together to meet the immediate needs of many local families.

Others have made similar gestures.

The Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College culinary arts program donated food to the Salvation Army, which in turn provided Thursday food boxes to those in need.

Local veterinarians have donated personal protective equipment such as masks to front-line health care workers. Local restaurants, despite taking a hit themselves from the pandemic, have donated food to those in need.

The list goes on, and it includes many of our younger residents. Children furloughed from school are taking breaks from their online lessons to use the medium of chalk on asphalt to create messages of hope.

It doesn’t help the bottom line, but it may help your frame of mind to see such messages as “We’re all in this together” or “God is in control” scribbled by the 10-year-old next door.

Gov. Andy Beshear, in his daily coronavirus briefings, has made the comparison between the current crisis and past events like World War II, saying we are only being asked to sacrifice for months instead of the years that were devoted to defeating the Axis powers.

The governor is right to try putting the current crisis in perspective, but he may be wrong about the duration of the hardships.

In truth, this crisis will endure as businesses try to recover from the devastating effects of a forced economic shutdown. Lives aren’t likely to return to normal for years, if they ever do.

But the actions and attitudes demonstrated by our faith community, philanthropy-minded organizations and chalk-wielding youngsters give us hope in the knowledge that we are part of a caring, supportive community.

As Beshear tells us every day in his briefings, “We’re gonna get through this. We’re gonna get through this together.”