“There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens.”

So writes the author of Ecclesiastes, a book in the Old Testament that’s counted as a ‘wisdom’ book and written as if by an unnamed king of Jerusalem. But who would have thought there would be a time to hunker down in our homes in order to beat a virus pandemic?

The author of Ecclesiastes reminds us that anything is possible and we should be ready, as everyone has been preparing as best we can over the past 48 hours. Even though we are preparing for something unprecedented, the author offers the comfort that while life can throw anything at us – the best and worst of times – that too shall pass and there will be another time to come. An important thing to remember today (Day Zero), as we head into lockdown.

a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3     a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
4     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6     a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7     a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8     a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

This, it’s fair to say is a “time to heal” and a “time to refrain from embracing”.

It’s also a time to test both the governance skills of our politicians and the operational skills of government officials. Because at a time like this, timing is everything.

To be honest, timing has always been key in politics. Winston Churchill was a great war-time leader, but in a different context could have been very different. John Key had the good fortune to enter politics at a time when he could rise quickly and Jacinda Ardern was lucky that Andrew Little’s leadership came to a head when it did. But now, it’s not just the decisions that matter, but their timing.

The coalition government’s first economic package seemed to land at just the right time. At four percent of GDP it was at the time one of the biggest in the world and gave reassurance to employers and employees alike (was it really only eight days ago?). At the time Finance Minister Grant Robertson said it was “only just the beginning” and sure enough already other countries have swept past with larger packages and here more is being added almost daily.

In contrast – and maybe as a sign of New Zealand’s capacity issues and just how much or little you can get in place in short order – the decision to close our borders seemed to come a couple of days late. The decision to spend only 48 hours at Level Three and move quickly to lockdown at Level Four was received by most as wisely pre-emptive, but the lack of quarantine facilities and breadth of testing remains open to criticism.

My point though is not to be critical, but to stress the importance of timing. Because while some of the decisions may have seemed early or late according to various health experts, there’s a social dimension to a government’s decision-making in times of crisis. The government has to take the public with it at these times. There’s no point making sweeping rules if the majority can’t or won’t obey them.

The seriousness of this pandemic has hit people at different times. I know health professionals who only a week ago were determined to press on with gatherings. Other random people who pulled their children from school last week or earlier. People can be panicky and stubborn. For me, the focus on coronavirus came out of a fog of a huge workload where I’d been working day and night for more than a month, and it took a few days longer than some for my focus to sharpen. So we are all different.

It’s also hit people in different ways. I have friends and family who will carry on working as normal, others in pieces over lost business and savings. There are single people trapped alone and others trapped in over-crowded homes. Some working harder than ever, some not working at all. There’s nothing easy about this.

But, a bit of supermarket raiding aside, the fact New Zealand starts today with a sense of willing unity (be it resigned or relieved) is a sign the government has got the timing right. Most people are moving with them.

Alongside getting the timing right for the public mood, the government has also had to consider the time it takes officials to create the operational plans needed to act. This should also give pause to people who have been quick to criticise the government’s lack of quickness. There’s no point making announcement about economic packages or nationwide lockdowns without answers to the stream of questions that will inevitably arise. Perhaps the most notable thing about the confusion around what is an essential service and whether The Warehouse could stay open (of course not! Too big an excuse for people to still go out) is how rare such confusion has been.

For a government that was heading into an election campaign which the Opposition hoped to make a referendum on ‘delivery’, it has shown strong delivery skills (as has its officials) in the past two weeks.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has clearly taken the approach that she doesn’t want to die wondering. Or, more to the point, she doesn’t want New Zealanders to die while the government inches forward. The decision by Ardern and Cabinet this week to move to lockdown while reported community transmission is low and before a single death (unlike most countries) is perhaps the key decision in all this and recognition she was serious when she said at the beginning “we must go hard and we must go early”.

The 48 hours since the announcement, while encouraging people to get out and about, to queue at shops and so on, gave time for people to absorb the information, move around the country, and for officials to figure out details.

And so today, the time has come. No, I don’t feel ‘ready’ either. How can you really feel prepared for the unknown? One hour I’m relaxed about the time at home, next I’m anxious about where this could all lead.

Then I’m determined that if we take this seriously now we could save ourselves greater pain and more lockdowns in the future. Later, I’m troubled this could drag on and on.

Which is why I’m reassured by Ecclesiastes. This is just for a time. And indeed, as we feel the seasons changing in this past week it doesn’t seem entirely unnatural to be heading into a form of hibernation.

It will get worse before it gets better and it will be desperate for many. It’s heart-breaking. But it will only be for a time. And we can hope that at the end of this, whenever it may come, that there will again be “a time for embracing”. Maybe the day we get the all-clear should be National Hug Day.

For now, however, we enter an unprecedented time. A time of uncertainty and pain. But a time for us to do what is right for each other, by staying home and cutting transmission. We can dare to hope, as I’ve heard experts say, that we might yet rid ourselves of this virus. So hunker down and hope. Now’s the time.