Have you heard about the September 2004 art exhibit in the Old Town House Museum in South Africa? The 17th century Dutch Masters paintings were hung facing the wall. Curator Andrew Lamprecht said it was a “conceptual art intervention,” and was “new and unexpected.”

I expect that most of those who came through the museum and saw only the backs of the paintings had other words to describe their experience besides just “new and unexpected.”

We live in a day and age when people, it seems, will do anything to find something “new and unexpected.” Many do not seem to know that the old and familiar may really be better, because it has stood the test of time.

The prophet Jeremiah knew this. He told his people, “Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein” (Jeremiah 6:16). Part of maturity is to learn that new and improved is not always new or improved. Let us devote ourselves to seeking out the old paths, and walking in them. In our confused religious world, we may even find our task to be “new and unexpected.”