Three Wooden Crosses

A farmer and a teacher, a hooker and a preacher

Riding on a midnight bus bound for Mexico

One was headed for vacation, one for higher education

And two of them were searching for lost souls

That driver never ever saw the stop sign

And eighteen wheelers can't stop on a dime

There are three wooden crosses on the right side of the highway

Why there's not four of them, Heaven only knows

I guess it's not what you take when you leave this world behind you

It's what you leave behind you when you go

That farmer left a harvest, a home, and eighty acres

The faith and love for growing things in his young son's heart

And that teacher left her wisdom in the minds of lots of children

And did her best to give 'em all a better start

And that preacher whispered, "Can't you see the Promised Land?"

As he laid his blood-stained Bible in that hooker's hand

There are three wooden crosses on the right side of the highway

Why there's not four of them, Heaven only knows

I guess it's not what you take when you leave this world behind you

It's what you leave behind you when you go

That's the story that our preacher told last Sunday

As he held that blood-stained Bible up for all of us to see

He said, "Bless the farmer, and the teacher, and the preacher

Who gave this Bible to my mama, who read it to me"

There are three wooden crosses on the right side of the highway

Why there's not four of them, now I guess we know

It's not what you take when you leave this world behind you

It's what you leave behind you when you go

There are three wooden crosses on the right side of the highway