Randy Travis: Three Wooden Crosses Meaning

Song Released: 2002

Three Wooden Crosses Lyrics

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'...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Jul 5th 2020 !⃝

   The narrator is a member of the congregation who is repeating the biographical story told by the preacher. The drivers of the two vehicles are not mentioned because they are inconsequential to the story. The preacher going to Mexico was a missionary either starting or returning to his field of operation and the hooker was going to Mexico for an illegal abortion. During the bus ride, the preacher did what preachers do. He ministered to this young lady in need of guidance, love and support. After the bus accident the preacher knew he was dying and needed to know if the hooker found God in his and the Bible's words. She did. She then went back home left the life of a hooker, had her baby and made a routine habit of reading the Bible to her child and herself. This song illustrates the long reaching ripple effects our lives have on others. We may never live long enough to see the effect we have on others but it does come, whether good or bad.
2. anonymous

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   Jun 19th 2022 !⃝

   Why not four of them, heaven only knows. Means only God knows why He spared the hooker's life while the farmer, teacher and preacher died.
   Later we understand her life turns around, she gives birth to the preacher who is being talked about, having the dead preacher's blood stained Bible, the singer is a member of the new preacher's congregation.
   
3. anonymous

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   Mar 31st 2021 !⃝

   Why there are not 4 of them, only heaven knows, tells me that the reason why there isn't a 4th cross along the highway, is because the hooker is pregnant with the son she is carrying, and he becomes a preacher to tell the story about that bus accident and his mother etc.
4. anonymous

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   Nov 14th 2020 !⃝

   The teacher and farmer both die in the accident. The preacher is badly hurt. The preacher in the final verse is not the one who was in the accident. The narrator is a member of the congregation. The preacher who holds the blood-stained Bible up for everyone to see is the daughter of the hooker. The line says the Bible was a gift from the preacher that my mother read to me. As he was dying, the preacher gave the hooker his Bible and she became the mother of the preacher in the congregation.
5. anonymous

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   Apr 20th 2020 !⃝

   Just a question if the narrator of the story is the son of the hooker and becomes the singing preacher then why does he say That's the story that (OUR-preacher told last Sunday), as he held that blood-stained Bible up,(FOR ALL OF US TO SEE). (It sounds like someone else was narrating/singing the story and not the son). Just curious.
6. anonymous

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   Jan 14th 2020 !⃝

   I thought the hooker was dying when the preacher gifted her the bible and said "Can't you see the promised land?", but the plot twist is that the narrator is not the preacher (who died shortly after the collision), but the hooker's son, who was raised with the Word of God. This implies that the hooker didn't waste her life after it was was spared that day three souls departed Earth. The death of one preacher lead to the birth of another preacher.
7. anonymous

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   Nov 26th 2019 !⃝

   the hooker was going to Mexico to have an abortion, but never made it, then the son became singing preacher.
   
   
   
8. anonymous

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   Nov 16th 2019 !⃝

   The bus is involved in a fatal accident due to the bus driver not seeing a stop sign only to be hit by an 18-wheeler which kills three of the four passengers; the lyrics ask why there are only three crosses and not four. (There is no mention of what happened to the drivers of either vehicle). The farmer, the teacher, and the preacher died in the tragic accident.
   The hooker survived, then had a son who became a preacher himself. The preacher singing/telling the story is the hooker's son.
9. anonymous

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   Aug 29th 2016 !⃝

   The man that's reading or singing the verse is the son of the Hooker. She took the bible from the preacher and lent it to the preacher in the church to read. Cause he gave it back to her after he read it.
10. anonymous

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    Oct 14th 2015 !⃝

    "A farmer and a teacher, a hooker and a preacher" are all travelling on a bus for different reasons. The driver didn't see a stop sign, and the bus was hit by a semi. There are three wooden crosses (the farmer, teacher, and bus driver) on the side of the highway, and the singer asks "Why there's not four of them, heaven only knows." It is then said that the farmer and teacher both left a large life behind, and the preacher says "Can't you even see the Promised Land?" and gives a blood-stained bible to the hooker. The hooker turns out to be the singers preachers mother "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.'" Then the singer says "Why there's not four of them [crosses] now I guess we know."

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