These past couple of years, everyday people have become heroes: teachers, social workers, grocery clerks, health-care workers, farmers, neighbors. Their compassion has helped others deal with worry, or what one young boy described as “sad panic mode” (Tara Parker-Pope, “We Surveyed 1,320 Therapists, and the News Isn’t Good,” nytimes.com, December 12, 2021). 

When I hear of people surviving very unsettling events with their courage and love intact, I remember the story of Noah’s ark (see Genesis, chaps. 6–9). Noah was told by God to build a boat, or ark, and it took him, his family, and two of every kind of animal safely through a flood that covered the earth. 

I find one of God’s instructions to Noah about how to build this ark especially interesting. Noah was told to caulk it with pitch, a sealant that would keep the water out.