diff --git a/hlink/linking/matching/link_step_explode.py b/hlink/linking/matching/link_step_explode.py
index 83bc6a2..a0d5e45 100644
--- a/hlink/linking/matching/link_step_explode.py
+++ b/hlink/linking/matching/link_step_explode.py
@@ -153,7 +153,7 @@ def _explode(
         # be a breaking change to remove this. We'd have to look into the
         # ramifications.
         if len(all_exploding_columns) > 0:
-            exploded_df = exploded_df.select(*all_column_names)
+            exploded_df = exploded_df.select(sorted(all_column_names))
 
         return exploded_df