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Symbolic and Mythic Expression in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings
Meant to Have the Ring
10/7/2K6
"In which case you also were meant to have it" (emphasis Gandalf's)
-- Gandalf, to Frodo, of the Ring (Fellowship, p. 65)
If Bilbo's finding of the Ring in The Lord of the Rings is an expression of supernatural providence, supernatural providence also finds expression in Bilbo passing the Ring on to Frodo.
Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, Gandalf said to Frodo. "In which case you also were meant to have it" (Fellowship, p. 65, emphasis his).
Supernatural providence may find expression in the Ring passing from Bilbo to Frodo. However, the passing of the Ring is not in itself an expression of supernatural providence.
Bilbo's finding of the Ring, on the other hand, is an expression of supernatural providence, and supernatural providence finds expression in that event as well.
The difference in the symbolic expressions of these two events--the Ring passing from Bilbo to Frodo, on the one hand, and Bilbo finding the Ring, on the other--may be that one was an ordinary event, whereas the other was unusual.