A farmer and a teacher
A hooker and a preacher
Ridin' on a midnight bus
Bound for Mexico
One's headed for vacation
One for higher education
And 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
Guess it's not what you take
When you leave this world behind you
It's what you leave behind you
When you go
Farmer left a harvest
A home on eighty acres
The faith, love of 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
An' 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
Said "bless the farmer, and the teacher
And the preacher
Who gave this bible to my mamma
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