While I’m generally not a country and western music aficionado, this song brought me to tears as I was randomly listening to someone’s playlist. And every time I hear it, I praise God for His grace and mercy for the gospel that changes lives, including mine.

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
Did her best to give them 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 a 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 that 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

Written by Kim Williams and Doug Johnson, and recorded by American country music singer Randy Travis.