Thick yellow pencils with soft lead that smeared real easy
page after page. I was lonely. But senior year I met a girl and she made me feel better here
but a girl was a girl was a girl

CHORUS
And she was beautiful
Everyone's beautiful
I smeared the picture and left it with her to appraise

I remember in junior high, half sick from fear on the hillside
Eddie wore braces and talked like he couldn't be beaten
Shawn had said Friday out back after school and Eddie was stumbling, blood mixed with drool
But a fight is a fight is a fight

CHORUS
Still they were beautiful
Everyone's beautiful
All of us crawling on hands and knees in need of you

BRIDGE
I want to lift
my memory
of them in the desert and set it on fire
and watch it burn
watch it burn
Oh, how it changes
and hope that the smoke of the sins of my youth
will sail to the base of the throne of a King
cause a prayer is a prayer is a prayer

CHORUS
And they were beautiful
Everyone's beautiful
Let them all find their redemption down deep in Your eyes