I believe that, in the beginning of the song, the boy's mother dies due to complications during childbirth, for which his father never forgave him. When he says, high above the guilt and pain, I think it's meaning is that his father always made him feel guilty and blamed him, as though it was his fault that she was gone, and the pain that the boy must have felt to have neither mother nor father (because his father resented him) to care for him. In the strong arms of the sycamore tree was where he felt cared for and protected.
I believe that, in the beginning of the song, the boy's mother dies due to complications during childbirth, for which his father never forgave him. When he says, high above the guilt and pain, I think it's meaning is that his father always made him feel guilty and blamed him, as though it was his fault that she was gone, and the pain that the boy must have felt to have neither mother nor father (because his father resented him) to care for him. In the strong arms of the sycamore tree was where he felt cared for and protected.