We've been looking for them, at least since I was a kid. Life forms from somewhere else in the universe.

In the 1930s, famed actor Orson Welles freaked out a nation with a radio broadcast of simulated news bulletins. Millions were convinced an alien invasion was occurring.

In the 1950s, sightings of UFO's triggered reports of downed aliens secretly kept in New Mexico's infamous "Area 51." In the 1990s, the hit TV series, "X Files," true believer Fox Mulder repeatedly told his skeptical partner, "The truth is out there."

Now our government has started releasing extensive files with footage of all kinds of unexplainable aerial phenomena. Enemy technology? The interplanetary visitors some have been waiting for? Or even "the prince of the power of the air" with a plan?

In our broader popular culture, extraterrestrial life is one of the most enduring mysteries of the past century. But it's just one of many things in the "beyond us" category.

Astronauts return from space in awe of the magnitude of what they have seen beyond our world. And millions of us are endlessly curious about a buffet of spiritualities and unexplainable spiritual phenomena.

And while our fascination with things "beyond us" takes us down many different trails, there is one common source.

There's a yearning in our soul that needs something bigger than ourselves. Bigger than can be explained.

And the revealing explanation comes from the greatest "beyond us" of all. The God who created us. Who says in His book, the Bible:

"God has placed eternity in the human heart."
(Ecclesiastes 3:11)

We are looking for something that will last forever!

Which effectively eliminates everything "earth." Oh, we try all kinds of relationships and accomplishments and experiences - but they don't last! And all of our ventures into the unknown and unexplainable are ultimately substitute supernaturals. Little bridges that leave us stranded. Because none of them reach the destination our soul craves.

Knowing our Creator. For He tells us that we were "created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). And as He prayed, Jesus said, "This is the way to have eternal life - to know You, the only true God" (John 17:3).

But our search for lasting love and peace and meaning has not taken us to Him. It has taken us away from Him. God describes it this way: "We all, like sheep, have gone astray; each of us has turned to our own way" (Isaiah 53:6). The opposite of God's way.

Tragically, that has left us "without God and without hope" (Ephesians 2:12). Alone in His universe. By our choice, not His.

Many religions talk of God at the top of a mountain. And us on many different roads, hoping they will lead to Him.

But the divine bombshell is this amazing reality: we can't possibly reach a sinless God, no matter which road we choose. But God loves us too much to leave us lost.

So in the greatest act of love in human history, He came down from the mountain to bring us to Him! At the unspeakable price of dying to pay the penalty for the very sinning we've done against Him. In the Bible's words: "Christ died for sinners to bring you safely home to God" (1 Peter 3:18).

Then He rose from the dead to give us a gift that answers the eternity in our heart.

Life. Eternal life!

Suddenly all the scattered pieces of our life make something. All our fear of the future is swallowed up by life that lasts forever. And the cosmic loneliness of our life is finally satisfied by the endless love of God.

No, the answer is not "out there."

It's right here. In the Savior waiting for us with arms open wide.

Check out more from Ron Hutchcraft @Hutchcraft.com