The Meaning of the Meaning of Life? Dynamic Meaning/No Meaning

Here are a few questions from a Tuesday morning that came to me while looking out my window at the sun rising over the snowy Chugach mountains: 

What do people mean when they ask "what is the meaning of life?"? 

Typically, people I talk to are referring to whether there is a goal, a purpose, a point, or some larger picture in which life fits. 

If someone says "life has no meaning " -- do they mean that there is no pre-established purpose or goal? Or does it mean that there's no relation to anything outside of life; that what we know is all that is, and thus it doesn't exist within a larger context which would give it meaning? 

Let's take the latter case: the assumption that life is what we experience and know, and that meaning is a relation to some more expansive and inclusive concept. 

A couple of thoughts arise from this: 

Even if there were some larger scheme -- if we were aware of its existence, then it would become part of our lives. Thus, we would inevitably ask: what is the meaning of our life which now includes this larger framework? 

For example, even if God came to me and said "X is the meaning of life," I might ask: "What is the meaning of X?" or "Who made you God? What is the meaning of your existence?" 

If we are working with the assumption that life is defined as what we experience/know (and I am unsure how useful or consistent that definition even is), how could we know if there is anything outside of life? Wouldn't it be impossible to know anything outside of our lives without making it part of our lives? Wouldn't it, therefore, be impossible for there to be a context outside of life that would give meaning to life? 

I guess my point is that, if we accept these arguments -- and these simplistic conceptions of "meaning" and "life" -- there could be no static meaning to life. Because every time we found "meaning," it would be subsumed into "life." 

Of course, there are many other ways in which to conceptualize "meaning" and "life" which could lead to very different implications. Curious if people have thoughts on this. 

(Note: This was just a quick thought I wanted to get down. Later, I went back and did some internet research and found this more comprehensive article about the meaning of the meaning of life.)