Three Wooden Crosses

Three Wooden Crosses

On of my favorite songs of all time is sung by Randy Travis called "Three Wooden Crosses". It was written by Kim Williams and Doug Johnson.

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,
An' two of them were searchin' for lost souls.
That driver never ever saw the stop sign.
An' 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 an' love for growin' things in his young son's heart.
An' 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.
He said: "Bless the farmer, and the teacher, an' 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.

YouTube Video of Randy Travis singing this great song, Three Wooden Crosses

What is the message of the song? What lessons can be learned? This is a inspirational song I love for the lessons it reached and the hope it gives everyone if the have the ears to really hear it. I believe that Kim Williams and Doug Johnson had some heavenly inspiration while writing this beautiful piece and that same spirit had to be with Randy Travis when he recorded it in 2002.

Most people associate the cross with the Redeemer but in this case the "Three Wooden Crosses" represent the three people who were killed when the bus they were on and an 18-wheeler crash into each other. Killing all the passengers except for the hooker. As the preacher was dying he gave the blood stained bible to the hooker asking her if she could see the promised land.

At some point in the hookers life after that wreck she turned her life around and had a son who she read the bible to. That son then grew up and went on to become a preacher who presumably affected many lives for good.

I think one lesson is that of judgement; The hooker was involved in a sinful life as a prostitute. Why she became a hooker may not be as important the fact that at some point after the preacher gave her a blood stained Bible she had an Epiphany and turned her life into one of a Christian who read the Bible and thought enough of the contents to raise her boy up on the stories and teachings of the Bible.

That boy went on to become a preacher. The hooker had a second lease on life and took it and redeemed herself through the Messiah. As a result of her new life a preacher was born. If, at the end of her life we judged her works they were good works.

So while we judge actions as righteous or sinful, that life we judge might just turn out to be a wonderful life as a heart felt disciple of the Master. Let us leave the final judgement to the one who knows our hearts perfectly.

Another lesson that can be learned from this story is that the preacher surely felt life draining out of his body as his spirit was getting ready to go to his reward, he took the time for one last act of service and what was one last act of preaching as he handed the hooker a bible stained in the blood of the preacher and perhaps the other passengers who lived good lives. One could think of those who died with blood on the bible sealing it with their lives well lived.

When you wear a cross necklace, never let it be casual. Take your time and find the right cross pendant necklace, it's fine to find the fashionable cross necklace. But when you wear that cross think of all that it represents to the Christian faith and to you and then act accordingly.

Let the cross necklace be a constant visual reminder of the tenets of Christianity. For a tremendous collection of Christian crosses click on silver crosses.