Three Wooden Crosses

• Doug Johnson & Kim Williams (Sydney Erin Music [BMI] / Sony / ATV Tunes LLC [ASCAP])
• Paul Leim (drums); David Hungate (bass guitar); John Barlow Jarvis (piano); Gordon Mote (keyboard); Larry Beaird (acoustic guitar); Steve Gibson (electric guitar & mandolin); Doyle Grisham (steel guitar); Wes Hightower (background vocals); Eric Darken (percussion)

A farmer and a teacher, a hooker and a preacher
Ridin’ on a midnight bus bound for Mexico
One was head for vacation, one for higher education
Two of them were searchin’ 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 growin’ things
In his young son’s heart
And that teacher left her wisdom
In the minds of lots of children
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 hands

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 bloodstained Bible up
For all of us to see
He said, “Bless the farmer, and the teacher and that preacher
Who gave this Bible to my momma
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