Three Wooden Crosses -- Randy Travis

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.

(**)

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."

(**)  

The song describes four passengers, a farmer  and a teacher  a hooker and a preacher  on a bus traveling from the United States to Mexico. The bus is involved in a fatal accident which kills three of the four passengers; because there are four people featured in the song the lyrics ask why there are only three crosses and not four.

The song mentions that the farmer and teacher were killed in the wreck, with the farmer leaving a harvest and a son who would follow in his footsteps, and the teacher leaving knowledge in the children she taught. It also mentions that the preacher lays his bloodstained Biblein the hands of the hooker, asking her if she could "see the Promised Land".

The end of the song reveals that the story was being told by a preacher during Sunday church services. However, in a twist, the preacher telling the story is not the sole survivor among the passengers, but is in fact the son of the hooker (holding up the bloodstained Bible as proof), who read the Bible that had been given to her by the dying preacher; in turn, her son eventually became a preacher himself.     (wikipedia)