“Three Wooden Crosses” by Randy Travis
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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
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 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
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Kim Williams / Doug Johnson
Three Wooden Crosses lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc
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“Down to the River to Pray”
Now just to be clear: Jesus did not encourage baptism. John baptised, and Jesus was baptised, but baptism was not a big thing in the Jewish religion, so Jesus would not sing this song in order to lead people to baptism. It would be sung by the pre-baptism Jesus; a man who was looking for something – forgiveness, cleansing, direction, etc – and thus it would be an inner reflection on a way forward for himself: “Good Lord, show me the way.” Ironically, the revelation he had when he was baptised convinced him baptism was not necessary to be put right with God, but that the realm of God was available to everyone.