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Galadriel55 spoke: They were all gathered by some force (call it "fate" if you prefer) to decide on the Ring and form a Fellowship.
For fun, count the number of times "fate", "destiny", "chance" and other such synonyms appear in Lord of the Rings.
Inziladun was, I believe, more on the nose than many gave credit for when he mentioned the connection with Bombadil.
Bombadil and Goldberry (the River-woman and others) are physical manifestations of Gaia (the Greek Titan mother of all--or if you prefer, THE ONE).
It is probably no coincidence that Maia is related to Gaia linguistically, even though the term does not appear in Lord of the Rings. The term "The Powers" does.
Note also Gandalf's parting words to Frodo and company before he visits Bombadil.
The inclusion of Eru as an outside all-knowing God is a corruption to the mythologies of the region from which these elements are derived--namely pict/wode, norse, celtic, anglo-saxon and others.
It is an admitted authorial forced inclusion of a christian/catholic layer, which includes angels, devils and saints--Earendil as a chief example of Sainthood.
It does not belong. One of my problems with... other texts, and those that came after.
I would use an analogy here that may help.
The Silmarillion and other unfinished tales/brief essays and written letters to fans and other people is like Cooking oil.
The Lord of the Rings is like Motor oil.
The Hobbit is like Baby oil.
Just because they all contain the word "oil" does not mean that they belong together. Putting motor oil into your cooking oil gets you things like Myths Transformed and others of that ilk. Putting motor oil into your baby oil gets you things like the aborted 1960 rewrite attempt of The Hobbit.
Galadriel55 mentioned the severe recasting of The Quest of Erebor--this is more a result of putting both cooking and motor oil in the baby oil.
That said...
Returning to what the Lord of the Rings itself presents:
The earth itself speaks quite often in Lord of the Rings. The ents and other living things draw their power (for even MORE fun, check the number of times the word "power" comes up in relation to inhabitants and locales) from the earth--like Old-man Willow for example. The earth is an active participant in events, and is seemingly the source guiding them though visions and dreams as the hand of fate, as all living things are part of the earth and connected to it.
Dust to dust as they say.
Note the Arthurian connection between Gandalf/Aragorn and Merlin/Arthur.
You can go even further with the Lady of the Lake (another manifestation of Gaia) and Excalibur. The mysterious appearance of the seedling of the white tree found on Mindolluin presages any of the incidents leading up to the war of the ring. Checking the Tale of Years shows no event that would account for the emergence of the seedling, not even the presence of Gandalf, yet Gandalf knows it will be present and why he takes Aragorn to that spot.
Attribute it to Eru if you like, but once you look at the whole picture that explanation falls flat on its face.
The symbols of the reigns of both Arthur and Aragorn are derived from the earth.
Excalibur is drawn from the earth (the stone) and returned to the earth (via the Lady of the Lake) at the end of Arthur's reign. Aragorn obtains the seedling at the beginning of his reign (Narsil as well if you care to continue the Excalibur connection).
They are gifts, from the earth.
As an amusing aside; Gandalf is twice obliquely compared to Merlin in Lord of the Rings as aging backwards. Once in Shadow of the Past and once in Voice of Saruman.
In Shadow, he recalls his appearance 90 years previous where his hair was whiter, his beard and eyebrows longer, and his face more lined with care and wisdom. Curious statement, no?
In Voice, Treebeard has a joke with Gandalf concerning haste and how he feels he is growing backwards towards youth. While this statement seems innocuous, notice that "hasty" is exactly what Gandalf is after his "renewal".
In fact, just about every second sentence out of his mouth concerns haste and his need of it, and he constantly berates others for their lack of it.
How does he "heal" Theoden? He basically tells the old fart to get up off his arse, go outside and DO SOMETHING. Be hasty. Renew. Theoden Ednew.
Old Gandalf--pretty much just farts around, mostly.
Oh he does stuff, but not in haste.
While the Arthurian connection is not terribly important to the overall discussion, the fact that "renewal" is a product of change, not idleness. Mother Nature (or Gaia) is not idle. Howerver it does also serve to illustrate the connections to the regional mythologies drawn upon, and is not christian/catholic in origin.
Another connection to the Gaia earth theme is the five wizards themselves.
They are elemental. Earth (Radagast), Fire (Gandalf), Air and Water (the Blue wizards) with Saruman representing the fifth element--Man, and Man's tendancy to be either corrupted or exalted.
Exalted, the head of the order commanding all the other elements.
Corrupted, cast out.
The earth themes flowing though the book are strong once you recognize them for what they are. Just look at the level of detail regarding descriptive nature elements in the book if you doubt nature is a heavy authorial theme.
Remember, oils do not all mix.
Doing so leads to alchemical frustrations as the author (and myself) belatedly discovered.
Keep the ingredients pure.
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