God is a totality. If you give it a moment’s thought, so are ecosystems. To be in the image of god is to be like that, a totality, and makes us a part of, or somehow connected to, all that has been created, adapted, evolved. It is a knowing too large to know, so a faith, a trust, an instinct is necessary. We embrace all that is fortunate and misfortunate in ecosystems with gratitude and grace.
So it is that we breathe in like God, aware of suffering, and out like god, spreading goodness. This is Tonglen practice, from Buddhism. We are like deities, ecosystems, with gifts on our breath, and it is not wrong to take some pride in that.