MCKINNEY, Texas — It's hard to replace some things.
Cameron Smith, of McKinney, almost learned that the hard way. On Sunday, he was returning home from church. As he put his son in the car, he put his Bible on the top of the car and drove off.
But it wasn't just any Bible. His mother had given it to him several months ago. But the Bible was even more special because the case carried his military patches from his tours overseas.
"I drove up and down the road, probably ten or twelve times," Cameron said. "We walked the whole area. We retraced our steps and couldn't find it at all."
The military patches are from his tour in Iraq back in 2008. In the Army, he assisted the chaplain. Cameron said he prayed about the loss of the Bible and patches. He thought it was lost for good.
"It's irreplaceable so I was desperate to find it," Cameron said. "I was really distraught when I couldn't find it, like feeling really low."
His wife put up a post on the McKinney Cares Facebook page asking for help to find it. Soon after posting it, a resident responded with a NextDoor post asking for the owner of the Bible they found.
"I was nervous the whole time because I was thinking maybe it got rained on and hopefully it's still intact," Cameron said.
It was just as he left it on Sunday. The patches from his military service and the Bible from his life-long service were intact. The woman who found the Bible was happy to return the Bible. They also said they didn't want an special credit for finding it.
"There's good people out there who do good things. The world is not so horrible and scary like we hear about," he said.
Cameron said it's also proof that God does answer prayers.